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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

BOSTON ' NEW YORK • CHICAaO 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

AN ELEMENTARY HISTORY OF 
THE UNITED STATES 



EVA MARCH TAPPAN, Ph.D. 

Author of'- England's Story, ^' " Old Ballads in Prose" 

" In the Days of Alfred the Great, " etc. 

Editor of " The Children'' s Hour." 




BOSTON, NEW YORK, AND CHICAGO 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 



JLIBRARYofCONGKESS. 

TwoOoplM ReceivoG 

JAN in 908 

_ Oopyricnt tntry 
IOLA88 A XXc. No. 
COPY B. 



t-» ' 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

I. Columbus shows the Way to America . 

II. The Eakly Followers of Columbus . 

III. The Early Attempts to make Settlements . 

IV. The Indians and their Ways .... 
V. Virginia, the First Permanent English Colony 

VI. Plymouth, the First Colony in New England . 

VII. The Massachusetts Bay Colony 

VIII. Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Con 

necticut 

IX. Early Customs of New England . 

X. New York, Delaware, and New Jersey 

XI. Pennsylvania and Maryland 

XII. The Carolinas and Gteorgia 

XIII. The French Explorations in America 

XIV. The Struggle with the French 
XV. The Times before the Revolution 

XVI. The First Two Years of the Revolution 

XVII. The Latter Part of the Revolution . 

XVIII. The Years op Weakness . . 

XIX. The Westward Grow^th of the Country 

XX. Trouble arises over Slavery . 

XXI. The Civil War 

XXII. Events since the Civil War . 

XXIII. Supplementary Chapter 



PAGE 

1 

13 
24 
34 
42 
52 
61 

70 
83 
88 
99 
109 
114 
119 
129 
141 
154 
168 
183 
197 
208 
229 
249 



Acknowledgment is due to General James Grant Wilson, the Lenox Library, Messrs. S. P. Avery, 
Jr., Walter Bailey Ellis, George A. Clough, Grover Flint, Charles Scribner's Sons, and The Century 
Co. for permission to reproduce illustrations. 



COPYRIGHT, 1902 AND I908 
BY EVA MARCH TAPPAN 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY TO AMERICA 



of the worli 



If a group of schoolboys had been talking about their geo- 
graphy lessons four hundred years ago, one would perhaps have 
said : — 

" Our teacher tells us that the world is flat. The land is in the Early ideas 
centre, the ocean flows all around, and if any one should sail to 
the edge of the world, he would fall off." 

Then another boy would have said : — 

" Our teacher told us that many learned men beheve the earth 
is round ; and he says a few of them think that if a ship should 
go through the Straits 
of Gibraltar* and sail 
west across the Atlan- 
tic Ocean far enough, it 
would come to India." 

"But no sliip could 
ever do that," another 
boy would have ob- 
jected. "The Atlantic 
Ocean is the Sea of 
Darkness, and every- 
body knows that the farther you go from the land, the darker it The Sea of 
becomes. There are thick, black fogs. In one place the sun is ^^ "^^^ 
so hot that the water boils, and it might be hot enough to burn 




DAXGEKS OF Til 
(From a sixteenth 



SEA UK DAKKNESS 
itury illustration) 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




A KORWEGIAN SHIP 



Trade with 
Asia 



the ship. The waves are as high as mountains, and there 

are mermaids and horrible demons. A monstrous 

bird flies over the water, strong enough to carry 

off a great ship and aU the sailors ; and worse 

than that, Satan sometimes stretches up a 

great black hand as big as a cliff and di-aws 

a ship down under the sea." 

These stories of the dangers of the ocean 
were not fairy-tales told to amuse cliildren ; 
they were what most men really believed. 
It is no wonder, then, that w^hen the 
people of Genoa in Italy w^ere asked 
to furnish funds, for sending a ship 
across the Atlantic to India, they 
looked upon the plan as a \vild and 
hopeless scheme. It is probable that five 
hundred years before this time some hardy mariners of Norway 
and Sweden sailed south from the settlement that they had made 
in Greenland, and even tried to found a colony m Massachusetts ; 
"but there is little reason to think that any one in Italy knew 
of their voyages. 

It was one of the citizens of Genoa who had asked for this 
money, a man named Christopher Columbus. He was born in 
Genoa, and all through his boyhood he had seen ships coming 
into the harbor and unloading rich cargoes of spices, pearls, per. 
fumes, silks, ivory, and fine Cashmere shawls. These luxuries 
were brought from eastern Asia, or the Indies, as people then 
called that country. The journey was long and hard, for the 
goods had to be taken on the backs of camels across great tracts 
of land to the eastern shore of the Black Sea. Then they w^ere 
put on board ships and carried past Constantinople and over the 
Mediterranean to Genoa 



COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY 




AHA VAX TRAVEL IN ASIA 



Columbus went to sea when he was fourteen, and three or four 

years later there were few rich cargoes from the Indies unloaded Why this 

at the wharves of Genoa. The reason was that the Greeks had ^^^^® *^^'®^ 

lost Constantinople to the Turks, and the Turks would not allow 

the Genoese vessels to 

pass through the Bos- 

phorus. 

Columbus did not 

believe half the 

stories that were 

told about the 

dangers of the 

Sea of Darkness, 

and he reasoned : 

"If the earth is 

round, we can sail across the Atlantic to the very coast of Asia, Columbus's 

and that would be a much easier journey than to go by the Black ^^^^oning 

Sea." He thought that it would be an exceedingly short way, 
for even the learned men who believed that the world 
was round thought it only half as large as it really 
is. He had studied and read and thought, and he 
felt sure that he was right. 

Only a rich city or a king could provide money 
for such an expedition. Genoa had refused, but 
Portugal had long been interested in finding an 
easier way to India, and therefore Columbus went 
to see the king of Portugal. The royal advisers 
called the plan a foolish notion, but the king was 
half convinced that Columbus was in the right, 
and he said : " My advisers do not believe that 

your plan is possible, but I should like to borrow your maps and 

look mto the matter for myself." 




COLUMBUS'S 
ARMOR 

(Now in Madrid) 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The king of 
Portugal 
deceives 
Columbus 



Columbus 
goes to 
Spain 



The maps were lent most willingly, for Columbus thoug-ht.that 
at last he had found a friend. After a while a ship sailed in from 
the west, and it became known that to make sure of the glory and 
gain for liimself the king had sent out a vessel secretly. It went 




THE MAP COLUMBUS USED 

but a httle way, however, because the captain was afraid of the 
high waves of the Atlantic. 

Columbus was so angry at this trickery that he took his httle 
son Diego and went to Spain. King Ferdinand and Queen Isa- 
beUa were on the Spanish throne, and to them Columbus appealed. 
Ferdinand called a council of wise men and asked them to decide 
whether these new ideas were reasonable or not. Now that so 
much more is known about the earth, some of the arguments 
brought forward by these learned councilors seem so foohsh that 
it is hard to believe they were really in earnest. One asked ; 
" How can there be people on the other side of the earth ? Do 
they hang on by their feet ? Do the trees grow down and does 
the rain fall up ? " Another was willing to admit that the world 
was round. " But if you should go to the other side," said he, 
" how could you ever sail up hill and return ? " 

For several years Columbus waited. Spain was at war, and all 
the king would say was that he would consider the matter later. 



COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY 5 

People laughed at the wild dream of this persistent stranger. Delay and 
The children in the streets pointed their fingers at him and whis- mem"'^^^^' 
pered, " Look ! there 's the crazy man who thinks he can cross the 
Sea of Darkness ! " Columbus had some reason to hope for aid 
from France, and he had sent his brother to England to ask for 
help. He determined to leave Spain. 

One morning a man with gray hair and keen blue eyes stood 
liefore the convent of La Rabida near Palos and asked for food Columbus at 



for his little son. The prior of this convent was a learned man who 
was especially interested in geography. He noticed the stranger 
at the gate and began to talk with him. When he found what a 
wonderful plan he had in mind — for the stranger was Columbus 
himself — the prior wrote to Queen Isabella and pleaded for her 
aid. He told her what glory such a discovery would bring- to 
Spain and how much wealth would pour in from the trade with 
the Indies. She became greatly interested, but a difficulty arose. 



La Rapida 



/^?ST INDIES 


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-THE REAL POSITION OF THE CONTINENTS 

Columbus demanded the title of admiral, the right to rule over 
the lands that he should discover, and one tenth of all gains that 
might be made. 

The Spanish courtiers were jealous that an unknown man, a 
foreigner, should dream of having so much power, and although Jealousy of 



he w^is ready to risk his life, one of them said to him sneeringly : 



the courtiers 



6 



OUR COUNTRY'S STOR\ 



" You have nothing to lose if you fail, and you make sure of your 
title, whether you accomplish anything or not. You 're a shrewd 
man." 
Columbus was not selfish, but he felt that he had a right to 
iisabella aids share in whatever gain might come from his years of study and 
thought. Moreover, he needed a large sum of money to carry out 



Columbus 





CONVENT OF LA KABIDA 
(The part Columbus knew is to the right) 

a plan of his for rescuing from the Turks, who ruled in the Holy 
Land, the tomb in which Christ was said to have been buried, and 
he declared that he would rather seek for the aid of France than 
yield a smgle point. The enthusiasm of Queen Isabella was 
aroused. " I will undertake the enterprise for my own crown of 
Castile," she declared, "and I will pledge my jewels to raise the 
necessary funds." 

Then there was a bustle of preparation. For some misdemeanor 

Preparations the town of Palos had been required to provide two ships, well 

manned and armed, to serve the king for one year. The order 

was given that these two ships should be at Columbus's disposal. 

The sailors of the town were terrified at the thought of such a 



for the 
voyage 



COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY 



sails 



.I'ourney. Some hid. themselves, and others ran away. At last 
two brothers, wealthy shipowners, offered to go on the fearful 
voyage, and also to furnish one vessel. 

After this some sailors volunteered, others were forced to go, 
and one morning in August the three small vessels, the Pinta, Columbus 
the Niiia, and the Santa Maria, set out from Palos to cross the 
anknoAvn ocean. The rudder of the Pinta broke, and a visit had 
to be made to the Canary Islands to repair it. Then word came 
that three Portuguese vessels 
had been seen off the coast 
waiting to capture Columbus. 
That matter was easily ar- 
ranged, for he slipped past them 
directly out into the open ocean, 
knowing well that no Portu- 
guese ships would dare to fol- 
low into the Sea of Darlaiess. 

The farther they went, the 
more frightened became the 
Spanish sailors. They wept 
and lamented, saying that never 
again should they see their 
homes and their friends. Every- 
thing alarmed them. The mast 
of a vessel floated by, and this 
they took as a sure sign that 
they would be wrecked. They 
saw a meteor, and they were 

certain that it was a bad omen. The wind blew steadily from the 
east, and the discouraged mariners wondered how they could ever 
make their way home. They found themselves in the midst of 
the great masses of seaweed that we call the Sargasso Sea, and 




QUEEN ISABELLA 
(After a picture in Madrid) 



8 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




THE SANTA MARIA 
(Columbus's own ship) 



then the sailors talked about quicksands and the dangers ot run- 
ning aground. The needle of the compass no longer pointed 
directly to the north star. That was worst of all, for 
'^ they thought they had lost their Avay. They were 

so angry with the admiral that they even 
planned to throw him overboard. 

Columbus was very patient with them. He 
sounded many times to convince them that 
there was plenty of water below the weeds 
of the Sargasso Sea. He made up the best 
explanation that he could of the needle's 
failure to point to the north star, and he 
told them of the wonderful countries that 
they would soon see, the home of spices and 
perfumes, of gold and jewels. He told them 
how much land they would own and what 
great lords they would become, and so day after day he led 
them on. 

Flocks of birds began to fly past, nearly all going to the south- 
west, and the course of the ships was changed to fol- 
low their flight, m the hope that they were going to 
Signs of land the land. Fresh-water weeds were seen and a 

branch of thorn with berries on it. At last a xvf 
piece of wood was picked up that some one 
had carved. Then the sailors were almost as 
eager as their leader to find the unknoA^ai 
country, and one after another began to de- 
clare that he could see land, and to claim the 
reward promised by Ferdinand and Isabella 
to him who should first discover the farther shore. Columbus 
increased the reward by the offer of a velvet doublet, but there 
were so many of these false alarms that he declared no man 





AN EARLY COMPASS 



COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY 



who shouted " Land ! " should receive the reward unless land was 
discovered within three days after the time when it had been 
announced. 

It seems only right that the great discovery should have been 
made by the admiral himself, and so it was, for one evening as he Land 
stood gazing into the west, he was sure that he saw a Ught that 



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last 



ClOLUMBUS'S ROUTE 
(From Winsor's Columbus) 

moved up and down as if some one was carrying a torch in his 
hand. Early the next morning, October 12, 1492, the land was 
in full view. Columbus put on his rich scarlet robes, took the 
royal banner in his hand, and was rowed to the shore. What a 
shore it was! The water was clear as crystal, the sand was 
dazzhngly white, there were strange trees and fruits, unknown 
flowers, birds of most brilliant plumage, and, strangest of all, 
great numbers of copper- colored natives, who at first hid behind 
trees, but soon gathered around the Spaniards, gazing with rev- 
erent curiosity upon their white skins, their steel armor, their 
glittering weapons, and especially upon the admiral in his scarlet 
dress. 

The Spaniards knelt down and kissed the ground. They rose 
and chanted the Te Deum. Then Columbus unfurled his banner Landing of 
and formally claimed the land for Spam. He named the island Co^""^^"s 
San Salvador, or Holy Saviour. It was one of the Bahamas, no 
one knows which one, but many think that it was the one now 



10 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




THE LANDING OF COLUMHUS 
Vanderlyn's painting in the Capitol at Wasliington) 



The return 
to Spain 



known as Watling's Island. The natives he called Indians, be- 
cause he supposed that he was on the coast of India. He asked 
the Indians where Cipango, or Japan, was, and they pomted to 
the south, for they thought that he meant some mountains with 
nearly the same name. They told him of " great water " to the 
westward, and he supposed they meant the Indian Ocean. 

The Indians had a tradition that some day white men would 
come down from the skies to visit them. They were overjoyed 
that the heavenly visitors, whom they thought the Spaniards to 
be, had come in their time, and when Columbus asked some of 
them to go to Spain with him, they were dehghted. Such a recep- 
tion as the successful voyager had when he returned to Spain I 
There was a triumphal procession with soldiers and music and 
banners and gorgeous robes to escort Columbus to the king and 



COLUMBUS SHOWS THE WAY 



11 



ilLieen. He knelt before them, but Isabella begged him to rise 
and seat himself — a rare honor in the Spanish court — and tell 
them all about his voyage and his discoveries. What a wonderful 
tale it must have been ! 

There is a story that at a dinner in honor of Columbus not long 
after this reception a jealous courtier asked him: — 

" If you had not sailed to the Indies, don't you suppose there 
are other men in Spain who would have made the voyage ? " 

Instead of answering, Columbus held up an egg and asked if Columbus 



any one present could make it stand on end. No one succeeded, 
until he took the egg, broke the end slightly, and in that way was 
able to make it stand. 

" Any one could do that," muttered the envious courtier. 

" Yes," said the admiral quietly, " after I have shown the way." 

That was the work of Columbus, to " show the way." He made 
three other voyages, visiting more of the Bahama 
Islands and the West Indies, and sailing along 
Central America, Panama, and the northern coast 
of South America. He tried to govern a colony 
of turbulent Spaniards in the New World, but 
he failed, and his enemies reported such mali- 
cious stories of him that a new governor was 
appointed for the colony. He put the great admi- 
ral in chains and sent him back to Spain. The 
captain of the vessel would gladly have removed 
the fetters, but Columbus said : " No, the rulers 
of Spain have put chains upon me, and they alone 
shall take them off. So long as I live I will keep 
these chains, and they shall be buried with me." 

Ferdinand and Isabella were indignant at such 
treatment of so great a man, and there was no 
delay in striking off the chains. Yet sovereigns 



shows the 
way 




SOUTH AMERICAN 

INDIAN, I49r 

(From the earliest 

j)icture) 



12 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



and kingdom were alike disappointed. Columbus had crossed the 
ocean, but he had discovered no gold ; and although he was so 
sure that the islands were off the coast of India 
that he called them the Indies, no great oriental 
cities had been found, and there seemed no reason 
to expect any great wealth to come from the new 
lands. He fell into loneliness and suffering. The 
queen died, and he was friendless. Again the chil- 
dren m the streets pointed their fingers at him, the 
" admiral of the lands of deceit and disappoint- 
ment," as they called him. He died neglected and 
forgotten. Seven years after his death. King Fer- 
dinand built him a handsome tomb, but it would 
have been better to treat him kindly when he was 
alive. 

Columbus was a great man, neither because he 

was the first to sail across an unknown sea, nor 

because he thought the world was round, for a 

Why Colum- wise man named Aristotle believed that eighteen hundred years 

before Columbus's time ; he was great because he knew what was 

true, and was ready to risk his life for truth's sake. 




COLOIBUS 

(From the statue in Fairmount 

Park, PhUadelphia) 



bus was 
great 



SUMMARY. 

Four hundred years ago most people thought the Atlantic could not be 
crossed. 

New difficulties in getting goods from the Indies made Europeans -wish to 
find a shorter route to Eastern Asia. 

Columbus believed that ships could reach Asia by sailing west. 

In vain he appealed for aid to Genoa and to Portugal. Finally, Queen Isa- 
bella became interested in his plan, and by the aid of Spain he set out 
on the voyage. 

October 12, 1492, he landed on one of the Bahamas, but because he thought 
he was off the coast of India, he named the islands the West Indies. 



EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 13 

Spain was disappointed that he fonnd neither gold nor cities. Columbus 
died not knowing that he had discovered a new continent. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Describe Columbus and Diego at the gate of La Rabida. 
Give the conversation between Columbus and the prior. 
What would a frightened sailor have said to Columbus to try to persuade 

him to retui'n ? 
What would Columbus have answered ? 



THE EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 



Now that Columbus had shown the way, others were ready to Voyages of 
follow, and withm fifty years Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, ^ ^ ^^bots 
Englishmen, and Frenchmen visited different 
parts of the land across the sea. 

An Italian merchant named John 
Cabot was living in England when 
Columbus made his first voyage. He 
was eager to cross the ocean, for he 
longed, as he tells us, "to attempt 
some notable thing." The English 
king was much interested, but he //'' 
did not care to spend the neces- 
sary money. Moreover, he was x 
trying to arrange a marriage 
between his ten-year-old son and 
the little daughter of Ferdinand 
and Isabella, and the Spanish am- ~ — 
bassador told him there would be i 




14 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



North 

America 

discovered 




CABOT DESCRIBING HIS VOYAGE TO THE ENGLISH KING 
(From an old engraving) 

trouble with Spain if he should send out explorers. After a while, 
however, he gave John Cabot the royal permission to cross the 
ocean on condition that he received one fifth of the profits of the 
enterprise. In 1497, just before Columbus went on his third voy- 
age, John Cabot set sail. He is thought to have steered almost 
directly west and to have been the first European to have a 
glimpse of North America, though whether he sighted land first at 
Labrador, at Newfoundland, or at Cape Breton, no one can tell. 

When he came home he was received in England with as much 
rejoicing as Spain had made over Columbus. An Italian who was 
living in England wrote to his friends in Italy, " Honors are 
heaped upon Cabot, he is called Grand Admiral, he is dressed in 
silk, and the English run after him like mad men." 



EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 



15 






The next year Cabot and his son made another voyage and 
sruised along the coast perhaps as far as South Carolina. These 
explorations were interesting, but no cities were found and no 
ncAV opportunities for trade opened. England was disappointed, 
and sent out no more expeditions for nearly eighty years. 

The land across the sea was not forgotten, however. Another 
Italian named Americus Vespucius sailed as a pilot, first in the Why our 
service of Spain and then in that of Portugal. " What a thing ^a^eV '^ 
it is to seek unknown lands ! " he said. He followed down the America 
eastern coast of South ^ ^ 

America, and finally ^ .-^^<7?. f:^ >-,— ^ 
went a long way east ^ ,2^ ^ , ^ .^ 

of Cape Horn. When 
he came home and told 
where he had been, 
there was much ex- 
citement. More than 
fifteen hundred years 
before this time a Span- 
ish geographer had 
taught that south of 
Asia and Africa was a 
great body of land. 
People thought that 

Columbus had fomid India, and now that Vespucius had discov- 
ered a wide extent of country so far south of where Columbus had 
been, they thought it must be this southern continent which no one 
had visited, though most people believed it existed. In a little 
book on geography written soon after Vespucius's voyage it was 
suggested that this land should be named for him. That is why 
our country is named America ; but Columbus is not forgotten, 
for in our songs it is almost always called Columbia. 




[DEA OF A SOUTHERN CONTINENT 
BEFORE VESPUCIUS'S TIME 




16 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

Twelve years after the voyage of Vespucius, there was another 

Ponce de expedition, the story of which seems like a fairy-tale. It was led 

th^Fo^untaln ^^ '^ wealthy Spanish nobleman named Ponce de Leon, who had 

of Youth been with Columbus on one of his voyages. His 

hair was growing white, and he longed to be a 

young man again. • There was an old story that 

somewhere in Asia was a magical fountain whose 

waters would make an old man young. So many 

things were new and strange and mysterious in 

those days that this seemed no more impossible 

than anything else ; and when De Leon heard Spanish helmet 

that the Indians declared there was such a fountain in their 

land, he could not rest till he had tried to find it. 

He had been living in Porto Rico as governor, and therefore the 
Discovery of voyage to the mainland was a short one. He landed on the coast 
Florida ^^ Florida on Easter Sunday, and as the Spanish word for Easter 

is "Pascua Florida," or Flowery Easter, he gave the name of 
Florida to the new land. It was a beautiful country, full of bright 
green trees, and flowers of many colors. There were rivers and 
lakes and springs. " Surely among all these," thought De Leon, 
"we shall find the Fountain of Youth." However,' though he 
drank the water now of one and now of another, and hoped 
at each draught that he would feel himself becoming stronger 
and younger, nowhere did he find the magical fountain. Instead 
)f growing young in Florida, it was there that he met 
his death, for the Spaniards had treated 
"^ the Indians so badly that they hated the 
white people whose coming with Columbus 
DE^Eoirs^ME ^^^' had been so welcome, and on De Leon's 

second visit he died by an Indian arrow. 

The year 1519 had come. Many different voyagers had sailed 
to America. They had landed on islands, or had explored the 




EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 



17 



coast for a little way, but few realized that a vast new continent 

lay west of the Atlantic. Most people thought all this expanse of 

land was connected with southeastern Asia, and that to the west 

of it lay the cities with which Europe had traded. They hoped 

there was some passage through tliis land which would give them 

a short route to India. One man who was especially interested Magellan's 

in this idea was a Portuguese named Magellan. He was a warm- p/ssaee^to 

hearted man, and it is quite possible that one reason why he India 

wished to cross the seas was because a dear friend of his was in 

the eastern Indies. 

The king of Portugal refused to have anything to do with the 
expedition. Then Magellan asked, " Have I your 
majesty's permission to offer my services to some 
other monarch?" The king repUed shortly, "Do 
as you please," and would not allow Magellan to 
kiss his hand at parting. 

Magellan did not wish to give up the 
voyage, and he sailed in the service of 
Spain, though Spain and Portugal were 
not on the best of terms. He had live 
ships, and the brother of his friend was 
captain of one of them. He went to the 
eastern coast of South America, and when 
he came to the La Plata River, he felt al- 
most sure that this was the passage that 
every one was hoping to find. He explored „.„„TT.vr 

the stream for three hundred miles, but it 

grew narrower and the water grew fresher. There was nothing He sails in 
to do but to go back to the coast and try to find some other pas- ^f spain 
sage. He sailed to the south, keeping near the shore. There 
were fearful storms that strained and weakened the ships, no 
one knew what dangers were before them, and they were short 




18 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



He enters 
the Pacific 
Ocean 



Across the 
Pacific 



of food. " Let us go home," pleaded the sailors. " Our ships are 
weak, and we shall either be wrecked or else die of starvation." 
" Never," answered the commander, " I wiU go on if I have to eat 
the leather from the ship's yards." 

On he Avent. The sailors rebelled. " He is only a foreigner," 
said they, " and what better service could he render to the king of 
Portugal than to lead a company of Spaniards to certain death '? " 
They even seized some of the ships, but Magellan found a way to 




ROUTE OF MAGELLAN'S SHIPS 

suppress the mutiny, and sailed on until he came to the strait 
that bears his name. Through the strait he went, and behold, 
a wdde ocean stretched out before him ! This ocean seemed so 
calm and peaceful after all the storms that he had been through 
that he named it the Pacific. It is said that when he saw the 
quiet water, he was "so glad thereof that for joy the tears fell 
from his eyes." 

The sailors were in despair, but it would do no good to rebel, 
for they were so far from Spain that there was not nearly enough 
food to last for a return voyage. The only course was to press on 
in the hope that aid would be found somewhere in the wide ocean. 
It was long before the help came, and they suffered so severely 
from hunger that they actually did eat "the pieces of leather 



EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 



19 




NATIVES 01 ■\IV(,LLLV^ s bTR^ITs 



which were folded about certam great ropes of the ship," At last 
they came to a group of islands where they eonld indeed buy 
some food, but the nativrs - - ,-! 

proved to be so dishonest that 
the Spaniards called them 
■'Ladrones," or thieves, and 
the name has clung to tli^ 
Avhole group of islands. 

Soon Magellan reached 1 1 
Philippines, and there he a\ 
killed in a fight mth the n 
tives, but not before he li; 
met ships coming from the 
west, and knew that his ves- 
sels could make the rest of the 
journey home through well-known waters. One of them did 
this, and in 1522 the first voyage around the world was com- 
pleted. 

The name, New World, had often been used, but until this voy- 
age of Magellan's was made, few thought that this New World The New 

World 
was a great double contment. Some supposed that what we call 

North America was probably a group of islands, and that some- 
where among these islands there was a passage through which 
ships might sail to Japan without going as far south as Magellan 
had done. They spoke of this strait which they hoped to find as 
the " Northwest Passage," and one man after an- 
other went out hopefully in search of it. How 
discouraged these bold navigators would have 
been if they had known that no such passage 
would be found until the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
that even then it would prove to be so far north as to have little 
practical value ! 




PHILIPPINE CANOE 



20 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

111 all these early voyages whoever landed on an unknown shore 

unfurled his banner and claimed the land for the sovereign in 

France is whose service he had sailed. France began to feel that it was 

the^New '" ^^^^^^ ^^^' ^^^^ ^^ have a share in these new countries, for even if 

World there were no rich cities with which she could trade, there might 

be gold mines and precious stones. There is a tradition that the 

, French King said : " Show me Father Adam's will that gives the 

earth to Spain and Portugal and shuts out France." 

Spanish voyagers had gone to South America and Mexico, and 

from those countries gold 
was pouring into Spain ; 
but if the Xorthwest Pas- 
sage could be discovered, 
the nation that controlled 
it need not envy Spain 
her wealth, for trade 
with the Indies would 
be as valuable as a gold 
mine. In 1534 a French- 
man named Jacques Car- 
Jacques \ " "^MIiWy'frf^^W''^Sji^i^^^y ^^^^ went in search of 
Cartier V^HRAnEr^ / . ^^Sil^^w ^^^^ passage. He seems to 

have thought that there 

was a better chance of 

finding it farther north, 

for he sailed directly west 

to Newfoundland, which 

A MEXICAN INDIAN ^lic Cabots had probably 

first visited. He went 

into a beautiful bay, but it was so warm that he could think of 

no better name to give it than Baie des Chaleurs (Chaleur Bay), 

or the bay of heat. In the usual fashion of the early explorers, 




EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 



21 



he claimed the land for his king and set up a great wooden cross. French 
The natives had received him kindly, but when the cross was set America 
up, the chief spoke as well as he could by signs and said : " Tliis established 
is my country, not yours. I am its king, not you." This made 
no difference to Cartier, for it never entered the 
minds of these voyagers that the Indians had 
any rights. He did not care to have trouble, 
however, and he thought it was quite unneces- 
sary to tell the truth to an Indian, so he 
said: "That is nothing. The cross is 
only a beacon to show sailors the way 
to your country." 

When once in the Saint Lawrence, 
Cartier hoped that he had found the 
Northwest Passage, but just as it 
had been with Magellan in the La 
Plata, so it was here, for the stream 
grew narrower. and the water fresher 
the farther they went. At last they 
had to admit that this was not the 
Passage so long desired. Cartier went 
on, however, to an island in the river 
where Montreal now stands. Here was 
a little Indian village. Back of it was a high hill, and the view The Saint 

from this hill was so beautiful that he named it Mont Real, or the Lawrence 

' explored 

royal mountain. To the river itself he gave the name Saint Law- 
rence, because he had discovered it on Saint Lawrence's Day. 

A few years later another great river, the Mississippi, was 
visited. Tliis discovery was made by De Soto, the Spanish gov- 
ernor of Cuba. He set out with a thousand men in nine shins. 
He carried with him cattle, mules, horses, and also fierce blood- 
hounds which were sometimes used to hunt the natives. It is 




JACQUES CARTIER 



De Soto's 
expedition 



22 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Missis- 
sippi River 
discovered 




DE SOTO EEACHIN6 THE MISSISSIPPI 
(From Powell's picture in the Capitol at Washington) 

no wonder that the Indians who had welcomed the Spaniards so 
warmly became as savage as the invaders, and tortured every 
Spaniard that fell into their hands. 

De Soto had been told that if he went to the westward he would 
find a land rich in gold, so to the west he made his way. He came 
to the Mississippi River in 1541, but he found no gold. The In- 
dians had become bitter enemies, two thirds of his thousand men 
had died in the wilderness, and he decided to build two boats, 
float down the river to the Gulf of Mexico, and then push on to 
Cuba. Before the boats could be made, De Soto died. He was 
so hated by the Indians that, for fear they should insult his grave, 
his followers hoUowed out the trunk of an oak and buried their 
dead leader at midnight in the waters of the mighty stream that 
he had discovered. 



EARLY FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS 23 

Nearly fifty years had passed since the first voyage of Columbus. 
Spain, England, Portugal, and France had all sent out explorers. Explorations 
The general course of the Spaniards and the Portuguese had been naUoiIr^"^ 
to lands around the Gulf of Mexico and to the south of it. The 
English had sailed to Newfoundland and Labrador. The French 
had explored the Saint Lawrence, Both English and French had 
explored part of the eastern coast of North America. 



SUMMARY. 

Within fifty years after the voyage of Columbus : ^ 

The Cabots visited the mainland of America. 

Vespucius coasted along South America. 

De Leon went to Florida. 

Magellan's ship sailed around the world. 

Cartier explored the Saint Lawrence. 

De Soto discovered the Mississippi. 
These voyages, together with that of Columbus, gave Spain, France, and 

England claims to land in Xorth America. 
They proved : — 

That the world was round. 

That it was much larger than had been supposed. 

That a continent lay between Europe and Asia. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Write a conversation between two persons about the New World. 
Describe Cartier's planting the cross at Chaleur Bay. 
Describe the burial of De Soto. 



24 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



III 
THE EARLY ATTEMPTS TO MAKE SETTLEMENTS 



Claims of 
France, Eng- 
land, and 
Spain 



As has been said, it was 
the custom for each ex- 
plorer to take possession 
for liis king of whatever 
land he visited. This is 
why the French claimed 
the country about the 
Saint Lawrence, the Eng- 
lish claimed all between 
Maine and Florida, and 
the Spanish claimed Flor- 
ida, Mexico, the West In- 
dies, and South America. 
'I' here were no bounda- 
ries between these terri- 
tories, no one knew how 
far west the continent extended, and each sovereign had a vague 
idea that he had a right to all the land that was connected with 
the place where his explorer was the first to land. 

Fifty years after Columbus's death neither Spain, France, nor 
England had settled on the mainland of what is now the United 
States. Different explorers had tried to found colonies, and even 
on Columbus's first voyage some of his followers were so de- 
lighted with the new country that they persuaded him to allow 
them to remain there Avhen he sailed for home. Tliis colony failed, 




OLD SPANISH GATEWAY AT ST. AUGUSTINE 



ATTEMPTS TO MAKE SETTLEMENTS 



25 




however, and so did all the others. The chief reason was that the Why the 
colonists had no thought of making their homes in the New ^^l^J,^^} 
World. What they wanted was to fill their pockets with gold or 
pearls or diamonds and then go back 
to Europe to spend their money. 

Filled with this idea, they paid little 
attention to the character of the region 
to which they were going. What the 
soil was, and whether it was a good 
place for a home, made little differ- 
ence to them. So much treasure had 
been found in America that men were 
ready to believe that anything was of 
value if it only came from across the 
ocean. The caterpillars of Florida 
they took for remarkably fine silk- 
worms. Quartz crystals from near 
Quebec they felt sure were diamonds, 
and when a sea-captain carried home a black stone from the frozen 
lands north of North America, he was immediately sent back across 
the ocean for a cargo of black stones, for the wise men of Lon- 
don declared that the specimen was full of gold. To colonists 
with such ideas as these, it seemed absurd to 
waste their time planting corn, when by 
a little searching they could per- 
haps discover a gold mine. This 
is the chief reason why during the First perm a 
second fifty years after Columbus memfin'^' 
discovered America only two per- the United 
manent settlements were made in 
what is now the LTnited States. One was at Saint Augustine, in 
Florida, which the Spanish founded m 1565. The other, also 
Spanish, was at Santa Fe in New Mexico. 



SPANISH TREASURE SEEKER 
(Showing the soldier's cuirass and halberd) 




A SILKWORM 



26 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Sir Walter 
Raleigh 



Of the colonies that failed one was unlike the others. This 
was founded by Sir Walter Raleigh, the best known Englishman 
of his time. He was an admirable leader and a brave soldier, as 
well as the author of some very good poetry and an interesting 
history of the world. Whatever he undertook he did Avell, and 
he always seemed to know just what to do. There is a story 
that one day Queen EUzabeth wished to cross a piece of damp 
ground. The attendants did not know how to save her Majesty 
from settmg her royal foot in the mud, but, quick as thought, Sir 
Walter spread his rich velvet mantle on the ground before her, 
and the queen passed over safely. Whether this is true or not, 
the warrior poet was a successful courtier, and Elizabeth was 
inclined to grant whatever he asked. 

He was greatly interested in the Xcav World, and he had some 




BIRTHPLACE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH AT HAYES IN DEVONSHIRE 



ideas that were unlike those of most men of his time. Others 
had thought that the chief value of America lay in the gold mines 
that might be found there; Raleigh beheved that if colonists 
would form real settlements and cultivate the ground, their sow- 
ing and reaping would be worth more than the vague chance of 



ATTEMPTS TO MAKE SETTLEMENTS 



27 



discovering a mine. Most men thought that if the Northwest Raleigh's 
Passage could be found, Europe would become enormously rich gbouf 
from trade with Asia. Raleigh dreamed of America's becoming America 
a second home of the Enghsh nation. " And when the land is 
full of English towns," he 
thought, " what need will there 
be of trading with Asia ? Will 
not tliis American England give 
us a market for our manufac- 
tures '? " 

Raleigh was a rich man, and 
he straightway sent out two 
ships to explore the coast of 
America. The next thing to 
do was to interest Queen Eliz- 
abeth in the plan. A man 
named Richard Hakluyt knew 
more about America than any 
one else, and Raleigh asked him 
to write a book for her, telling- 
why it would be a good thing 
for England to have colonies in 
the New World. Hakluyt gave 
many reasons. He brought for- 
ward the hope that America would become a market for Eng- Reasons 
lish manufactures. He declared that England would soon have colffni'es'"^ 
neither food nor work for her people. It was becoming so much 
more profitable to raise sheep than grain that large numbers of 
English farmers were turning their farms into sheep pastures. 
They no longer planted grain, and as one man could care for 
many sheep, the men who had been working on farms had nothing 
to do. It is no wonder that many people agreed with Hakluyt. 




QUEEN ELIZABETH 
(From a portrait in the Queen Victoria collection) 



28 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




Objections 
to planting 
colonies 



QUEEN ELIZABLTH'S Ci 



Another strong reason was that England could weaken Spain by 
having colonies in America. English vessels, he said, could easily 
go forth from these colonies and cap- 
ture Spanish treasure ships, as well 
cis drive the Spaniards from the 
y'h ^ Newfoundland fishing grounds. 
_£AiLJ^ Spain would no longer receive 
the vast amounts of gold 
that had been coming to 
her from her American pos- 
sessions. "Then is there no 
doubt," said Hakluyt, " but the Spanish empire falls to the ground, 
and the Spanish king shall be left bare as JEsop's proud crow." 

Ehzabeth was much interested in the plan, and on the return 
of Raleigh's exploring vessels suggested that the land which they 
had visited should be called Virginia in honor 
of her, their virgin queen. When she was asked 
to send out a colony, it was a different matter. 
No doubt it would be a good thing to have 
powerful settlements in America from which 
vessels could be sent out to capture Spanish 
ships, but it would be some years before 
these settlements would be strong enough 
to do anything of the kind, and in the 
mean time England needed all her 
money and all her ships to meet an 
attack that was threatened by Spain. 

Finally Raleigh sent out more than one 
hundred emigrants at his own expense. The 

queen had granted him a generous tract of land, for " Virgmia " 
was to extend from Cape Fear to Halifax, and she had promised 
that American colonists should have all the privileges of men born 




ATTEMPTS TO MAKE SETTLEMENTS 



29 



and living in England, and that they should make such laws as 
they thought best. England claimed tliis vast area of land because 
of the discoveries of the Cabots. Elizabeth said that Spanish 
claims were nothing where Spain had no settlements, and as for 



have, no one thought 
went to Roanoke Is- Raleigh's 



It failed utterly, 
delayed. 



colony fails 



any rigfits that the Indians might 
of them at all. In 1585 the colony 
land, off the coast of North Carolina. 
The promised ship with provisions 
the men were homesick, they pre- 
ferred to search for gold rather than 
to work, and the governor de- 
clared that they talked too 
nuich ! An English vessel 
came to the island, and 
they all went home. They 
carried with them pota- 
toes and tobacco, and from 
that day to this, as has 
been said, " the air of Eng- 
land has never been free 
from tobacco smoke." 

Two years later Ra- 
leigh sent out a second 
colony to the same 
place, this time of men, mo- 
men, and children. Not 
long after they landed, there was born to the governor's daughter His second 
a little girl, who was the first child born in America of English ^^ °"^ 
parents. She was named Virginia Dare. No one knows what 
became of this httle American girl, for the governor had to return 
to England ; and when three years later he was able to go back 
to the colony, the little granddaughter and all the other colonists 




SPANISH TKEASURE SHIPS 



30 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



had disappeared. There is a tradition that some Indians were at 
first kind to them, but afterwards murdered nearly all. It was 
rumored that one young girl was among the few that the savages 
spared, but whether it was the child Virginia, no one can tell. 
Raleigh had not forgotten the colonists dui-ing those three 




M 




SPANISH AKIIADA ATTACKED BY THE ENGLISH FLEET 
(From an ancient tapestry in the House of Lords) 



Why Raleigh years. He tried to send a vessel to them, but it was driven back 



did not help 
the colonists 



to port by the Spaniards. He tried agam, but the English govern- 
ment had need of every ship in the kingdom, and his vessel was 
seized for the service of liis country. This was m the famous 
year 1588. Spain was determined to conquer England, and she 
had fitted out a great fleet of warsliips. The Spanish word for 
fleet is "armada," and Spain was so sure that no other vessels 
could resist her onslaught that she called the fleet the Invincible 
Armada. This attack was not for money or possessions ; the king 
of Spain meant to become also king of England. The whole land 
was aroused. Every one who owned a vessel went out to fight 
the Armada, and the end of the matter was that the Spanish 
ships were so shattered by the English attacks a:: d by storms 
that not more than one half ever returned to Spain 



ATTEMPTS TO MAKE SETTLEMENTS 31 

Before this time England had always been afraid of contests 
\Tith the Spaniards, for Spain was a rich and powerful country. 
English vessels were so often captured by Spanish men-of-war 
that even if English colonies had been planted in America, the 
colonists could not have been sure of receiving food and supphes 
from England ; but after the victory over the Armada, England England is 
was " mistress of the seas " and could plant her colonies where ofThTseas 
she would. Spain was thoroughly subdued and seldom ventured 
to interfere. 

This contest took place while Queen Elizabeth lived ; but when 
she died. King James, the next sovereign, seemed to care for 
notliing else so much as ^\dnning the friendship of Spain. Now 
Spain hated Raleigh, not only because he had fought against the 
Armada, but because he had tried to plant a colony 
and to find a gold mine on what she claimed was 
Spanish soil; and to please Spam this great man 
was kept in prison for twelve years, and 
finally executed on a false charge of trea- 
son. Prisoner as he was, he never gave 
up his interest in America. "I shall live 
to see Virginia an English nation," he said, and he 
did see the beginning of a new home for part of 
the English people across the ocean. If he could 
look upon America now, he would think that his 
dream had come true, though it would surprise 
him greatly that the colonies planted by Engfish- 
men were no longer under English rule. Amer- 
icans should never forget Sir Walter Raleigh, for Spanish gentleman of 

* '^ ' THE AltMADA PERIOD 

he was one of the first men in the world to be- 
lieve in the wonderful future that lay before our land. 

In 1600 America had been knoA^m for one century. People 
had by that time a fair idea of the shape of South America, but. 




32 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Ideas about 
North Amer- 
ica in 1600 



Search for 
the North- 
west Pas- 
sage 



although explorers had coasted along the eastern shores of North 
America, and also ainno- ti,,. western shores as far as what is now 
^^^f^ -^^^^i called Oregon, no one 



1 



•SEEKING THE N' (Jl; T 11 WE.SX 1' \.v- \(,l 
(The Hudson Elver explored during the search) 



had any notion of the 
shape or size of the 
northern half of the 
New World. From 
Florida to where New 
York now stands might 
be a solid mass of land, 
they thought, extend- 
ing to California, but 

Canada and all the northwestern part of what is now the United 

States many supposed to be one great sea broken by islands. 

From Virgmia across the land to this vast northern ocean they 

thought was perhaps one hundred miles. 

Explorers hoped to find a strait through this land, and when- 
ever a mariner came to the wide 

mouth of a river, he would say to 

himself, "Surely I am the fortunate 

man who has discovered the North- 
west Passage." If he sailed up the 

river, he found the water less salt 

with every mile, and at last he would 

turn his ships about and sail back, 

saying, "The Northwest Passage 

must lie farther north, or it may be 

farther south." Never would he say 

to himself, "There is no Northwest 

Passage." 

Although Ealeigh saw farther into sassafkas 

the futui-e of America than most other men, he was not the only 





ATTEMPTS TO MAKE SETTLEMENTS 33 

one interested in the New World. Valuable woods and dyestuffs Increased 
had been found; sassafras had been discovered, and sassafras was ^^^ ^^^ 
the fashionable medicine of the day, the remedy that would cure World 
all diseases. Merchants began to feel that there were as good 
opportunities for gain m America as elsewhere in the world. 

Other books than Hakluyt's were written to show that it was 
worth while to plant colonies. One strong reason for making 
settlements in America was that by fomiding colonies England 
might have a larger share in the American 
fisheries. Great quantities of fish were 
caught off the shores of Newfoundland. 
Many more Frenchmen than Englishmen 
had taken advantage of this fact ; but if 
only there were colonies near the fishing codfish 

grounds, the EngUsh fishermen could be (The most important of the American fishes) 

protected from their enemies, and the colonists could salt and 
dry fish and have it ready to send home to England. 

SUMMARY. 

France, England, and Spain all claimed a share in the New World, but in 
1600 there were only two permanent colonies, — Saint Augustine in 
Florida, and Santa Fe in New Mexico. Both were Spanish. 

Raleigh believed that America would become a second home of the English 
nation. He planted two colonies on Roanoke Island, but both failed. 

England's defeat of the Armada enabled her to plant colonies without fear 
of Spain. 

In 1600 the shape of North America was unknown. The continent was 
thought to be much narrower than it is. It was also believed that a 
passage led through it to the Pacific. 

England was feeling interested in the Newfoundland fisheries, and mer- 
chants were finding that there were opportunities for gain in the New 
World. 



34 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Raleigh writes a letter to Queen Elizabeth, asking for help to found a colony. 
One of Raleigh's colonists writes a letter home describing the potato. 
What became of little Virginia Dare ? 
What Raleigh would think of America to-day. 



IV 



THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAYS 



The differ- 
ent Indian 
tribes 



Foe many centuries be- 
fore Columbus came to 
America the country was 
inhabited by a copper- 
■ thn^ed people whom he 
ailed Indians, because he 
supposed that he was on 
tlie coast of India. There 
were many different 
tribes, and each tribe had 
a name, but for their race 
as a whole they had no 
other name than a word 
meaning "Men," or "Real 
Men." 

The Indians of the 
northwest never had any 
settled homes, but roamed about from place to place and lived 
on fish and game. Those of the southwest lived in fortresses of 
stone, often built four or five stories high up the face of a clitt", and 




INDIAN DWELLING IN THE SOUTHWEST 
(The Pueblo of Wolpi in Arizona) 



THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAYS 



35 




each of them large enough to make a clwelling for two or three 
thousand persons. Those of the east, the ones with whom the 
early English colonists had most to do, gathered into villages. 
They lived partly by the chase, and partly on 
some of the vegetables that are most easily 
raised, — corn, beans, pumpkins, and squashes. 
The Indians who dwelt in villages some- 
times built long houses large enough for Long house* 
many families, with a division for each family. ^"*^^'^' 
Sometimes they made wigwams. For these 
they drove poles into the ground in a circle 
and fastened the tops together for a frame- 
work. Then they spread over this 
framework the bark of trees, or 
skins fastened together with the 
sinews of animals. Sometimes, like the 
people who lived in England in the early 
days, they wove slender twigs back and forth among the 
poles. The fire was on the ground in the middle of the wig- 
wam, and the smoke made its way out as best it could. 

Each family had its own wigwam. The husband, or brave, 
must protect his wife and children from their foes, and he 
must procure whatever meat and fish were used. The wife, 
or squaw, must provide the vegetables. She must not only 
30ok them, but she must plant the seed and give them what- 
ever care was needed while they were growing. A brave 
would work to make bows and arrows, but he would not hoe .^ stone 
the corn. If his family moved, he would stalk on ahead with ^^^'^ 
his weapons, while his wife followed as best she could with the 
household goods. 

This seems at the first glance like a most unfair division of 
labor, but it must be remembered that when the brave fished, he 




The Indian 
family 



36 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The brave had something more to do than to bait his hook and drop it into 
the water. He must make his hook before he could bait it, and 
he must make his line from the fibrous bark of some tree. If he 
needed a pole, he must cut it, not with a sharp steel hatchet, but 
with a dull stone knife, and he must also make the knife. His 
boat was either a birch-bark canoe, or a " dug-out," which was 
hollowed out of the trunk of a tree. Making a boat, as well as 
almost all other work that the Indians did, was long, slow, and 
wearisome. 

The household goods of the Indians were few. There was per- 





haps a basket or two, some skins to sleep on, a bowl made of clay 
hardened in the fire, and not much else. If there was a baby, or 
The papoose papoose, in the household, it was not allowed to lie on the ground 
or creep about as white babies do. An Indian mother would 
have thought it very careless to treat her precious child in such 
a fashion. The Indian baby was carefully wrapped in the softest 
of skins and tied to a framework of wicker or wood. Then baby 
and framework were stood up in any safe place, or swung to the 



THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAYS 



37 



branch of a tree, where the wind would rock the child better than 

a cradle, and the bright green leaves, gleaming in the sunshine 

and waving in the breeze, were prettier playthings tl 

any that are found in the toyshops. The Indians c 

to-day who have not adopted the ways of the white 

people treat their children in the same manner, and 

the babies always look contented and happy. 

When the children grew older, the girls were 
taught to do all the kinds of work that their 
mothers did. They learned to make baskets and 
pottery, to plant corn and cultivate it, and to cook in the 
clay bowls. If they had only dishes of wood, they would fill 
them with water and heat the water by dropping m hot stones. 
In this way they could boil their meat and vegetables : or they 
could broil the meat over the open fire and 
roast the potatoes and squa lies in the hot 
ashes. They had no way of grinding corn, 
but they pounded it into a coarse meal, 
mixed it with water, and made cakes of it. 
Making the clothes of the family did not re- 
quire much time, for no one wore very many. Indian 
A rudely woven garment of cotton or grass- '^^^^"'"S 
cloth was enough for the summer, wliile 
leggings of skin and a fur cloak were a 
wardrobe for many \vinters. The Indian 
women liked pretty things as well as white 
women do, and they gave a great deal 
of attention to the shoes of the family. 
These shoes were called moccasins. They were made of soft, 
thick deerskin, and were embroidered with porcupine quills and 
tiny shells. It was partly because of this embroidery that the 
Indians were so delighted when the colonists gave them beads. 





THE INDIAN 
BABY'S CRADLE 



BOILING FOOD IN AN 
EARTHEN POT 



38 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Weapons 



The scalp 
lock 



for beads were easier to use than shells and of much more bril- 
liant colors. 

As the boys grew older, they were taught to do what their 

fathers did. They learned not only to fish and shoot, 

but to make their own fishhooks of bits of bone, and 

their own bows of wood with the sinews of deer for 

bow-strings. The heads of the arrows were made of 

stone, and the Indian boy must work patiently hour 

after hour, chipping off a httle bit of stone at each 

blow, until he had brought the head to the proper 

shape. Then it was bound fast to the wooden arrow. 

He must make his knife by rubbing a bone on a rock 

until it had an edge. The tomahawk was made of 

stone, and that, too, was shaped and sharpened by 

bemg rubbed on a rock until it slowly came to be of 

the right form. 

The Indian boys did not have an easy time by any 
means. Even their games were not what we should 
call play, for many of them were only tests to 
see who could endure most. It is said that 
one game was played by the boys putting red- 
hot coals under their arms. The boy who 
dropped his coal first was laughed at and de- 
TNDiAN WEAPONS gpiggf^^ wliilc the ouc who bore the pain long- 
est was the hero of the day and was honored by the 
boys and by their fathers. 

As soon as the boy was old enough to become a war- fishhooks 
rior, his head was shaved, except for one long lock of 
hair called the scalp-lock. When an Indian killed an enemy, he 
always " scalped " him, that is, he cut off a round piece of the 
skin of the scalp. This lock was left to make it convenient to 
cut off the piece of skin and carry it away. An Indian would 





THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAYS 39 

have thought it exceedingly cowardly to remove his scalp-lock 
before going to fight, and when he looked upon an enemy's, it 
seemed to say, " Take me if you can." 

Their fighting was carried on in quite a different fashion from 
that of Europeans. The Indian had no idea of two lines of war- Method of 
riors facing each other and shooting till the men of one side had '^ ^'"^ 
either faUen or run away. That would have seemed to him a 
most ridiculous thing to do. The proper way to "'i^^' 

fight, according to his ideas, was to shoot from 
behind rocks and trees, or to come suddenly 
upon his enemies with a horrible war-whoop, 
perhaps in the middle of the night, and kill 
them before they were fairly awake. 

The Indians often tortured their prisoners, 
but perhaps not wholly from the fiendish 
delight, that some races have shown, in see- 
ing the sufferings of others. To bear torture 

^ AN INDIAN SCALP 

Without a groan was their test of a great man. lock 

If the prisoner contrived to get the better of his captors by some 
deed of bravery, they showed him all honor. Only a few years 
ago, a young missionary won over a group of Indians in Dakota 
by riding a " bucking " pony that they had not been able to man- 
age. " After that," said he, " I could preach to them all day if I 
chose, and they would listen to every word." 

Each tribe had a chief, but all important questions were talked 
over in a general council of the braves of the tribe. The records Wampum 
of these councils were carefully kept, only the Indian way was 
not by pen and paper, but by the use of small shells made into 
beads and called wampum. Belts were made of this wampum, 
and as shells of different colors were used, sometimes pictures of 
men and animals were formed ; but even if there were no pictures, 
the Indians could tell by the arrangement of the shells what had 




40 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Religion 




been done at a council, or what treaties had been made. This 
wampum was not only a record, but the shells took the place 
of money, and for some time even the colonists used them for 
that purpose. After a while the Indians made their wampum of 
beads, and a handful of beads was to a red man what 
a handful of gold dollars is now to a white man. 
With this in mind, the price paid for Rhode Island, 
forty fathoms of white wampum, does not seem so 
ridiculously small. 

The Indians thought that if they were brave 
warriors they would go to the "Happy Hunting 
Grounds" when they died. That they might be 
able to follow the chase in this world of happiness, ijjdia.n 
their weapons were usually buried with them, and wampum 
sometimes a dog was killed and laid at the feet of his dead 
master. They are thought to have believed in one Great Spirit, 
who was more powerful than all other gods, though they also 
worshiped the sun, rain, wind, Hghtning, or anything else that could 
help or harm them. They were honest and truthful with mem- 
bers of their own tribe, and they had a great admiration for any 
one among the whites who kept his word with them. Long after 

the early colonial days, a 

man in Pennsylvania was 

AN iNDiAX PIPE called among them " He 

that Tells the Truth;" and even now the In- 

% dians of Minnesota speak of the late Bishop 

Whipple as " Straight Tongue," because he never 

broke his word to them. 

In their dealings with the whites, they always remembered a 

Treatment of kindness, though they never forgot to avenge an injury. Almost 

bjf the'^'^"^ all of the early explorers say that the Indians were at first gentle 

whites and friendly. The whites looked down upon them as heathen. 




THE INDIANS AND THEIR WAYS 



41 



but it was often the Europeans that behaved like savages. Their 
treatment of the red men brought upon the colonists many of the 
attacks that filled their lives with fear and suffering. If there 
was any difficulty with the Indians, the whites would generally 
stand by one another; and for this reason the Indians felt that 
if one group of settlers had done them a wrong, they had a per- 
fect right to avenge it on any other group. 

Such were the people whom the early settlers in America had 
to meet. If from the first coming of the dis- 
coverers the red men had been treated with 
kindness, taught and not despised, many a 
story of suffering and bloodshed would have 
been unwritten. To the Spanish founder of 
Saint Augustine the Pope wrote: "Have a 
care that you show not bad habits and vices 
to the Indians, and so prevent them from be- 
coming Christians." It is to be regretted that 
this advice was not always followed. 

The red men looked upon the first wliite 
men that they saw as angels come down 
from the skies to counsel them and teach 
them. It was a sad thing for them and for 
the whole country that their first century of acquaintance with 
Europeans should have often shown them the white man, not as 
the kind teacher, but as the savage conqueror, ready for the sake 
of gold to torture, enslave, and murder the people who had wel- 
comed liim and trusted him. 




SUMMARY. 

Columbus called the natives of America Indians, because he thought he 

was on the coast of India. 
The Indians that had settled homes lived in stone fortresses, in long houses, 



42 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



or in wigwams. Their food was vegetables, fish, or the animals that 
they shot. Their tools and weapons were made of stone or bone. Their 
boats were canoes or dug-outs. 

The papoose was protected by a wooden framework. The girls learned to 
make household utensils, to cook, raise corn, and make the clothes of 
the family. The boys learned to hunt, fish, and make their own 
weapons. Their games were often tests of endurance. 

The warrior always had a scalp-lock. He shot from behind rocks and trees. 
He often tortured pi'isoners. 

Wampum was used for money and for keeping the records of the tribe. 

The Indians believed that after death they would live again. They remem- 
bered a kindness, but never forgot an injm'y. They welcomed the fii'st 
white men as teachers come from the skies. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

An Indian boy tells a white boy how to build a wigwam. 
An Indian girl tells how her mother cooks the dinner. 
The Indians held a council about making war upon the whites ; 
they say ? 



what did 



VIRGINIA, 



THE FIRST PERMANENT ENGLISH 
COLONY 



Sir Walter Raleigh at last concluded that planting colonies 
should be the work of a kmg or of a company of men, and he 
gave up his clahu to the American lands. While he was in prison, 
two companies were formed to send colonists to Virginia. They 
were named the Plymouth Company and the London Company. 
King James gave to the Plymouth Company the land between 
Nova Scotia and Long Island, and to the London Company, the 
land between the Potomac and Cape Fear. From the Atlantic 



VIRGINIA 



43 



to the Pacific is about three thousand miles, but no one supposed 
then that it was more than one or two hundred, and King James 
declared that these grants were to extend from ocean to ocean. 
The strip between the two claims was to belong to the company 
that could colonize it first. The Plymouth Company did little 

more than to coast along the 
shore and trade with the In- 
dians, but the London Com- 
pany founded the first per- 
manent Enghsh settlement in 
America. 

In 1607 the London Com- 
pany sent out one hundred 
and five men. Many promi- 
nent persons in England were 
interested in this colony, and 
Hakluyt wrote them a long 
letter of advice. He told 
them to be kind to the " nat- 
urals," as he called the In- 
dians, but not to trust them. 




Xb!. 



The London 
Company's 
first colony 



GRANTS TO THE LONDON AND 
PLYMOUTH COMPANIES 



An English poet wrote a poem Ideas of 
u ^^. . . ^, , 1 Virginia 

about Virginia, earth's only 

paradise." In the plays of 

the time there was much talk 



about tliis marvelous country. One character says : — 

" I tell thee, gold is more plentiful there than copper is with 
us. ... All the prisoners they take are fettered in gold ; and for 
rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather them 
by the seashore to hang on their cliildren's coats and stick in their 
children's caps." 
The little company sailed for America. Up the coast they 



44 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




ENGLISH SOLDIER OF 1603 



Sickness 
and other 
troubles 



went ; between two points of land, which they named Cape 
Charles and Cape Henry in honor of the two sons of King 
James; and up a river, which they named the 
James River in honor of the king himself. On a 
peninsula which extended into the stream they 
decided to make their settlement. They called it 
Jamestown. 

Everythmg was against the colony. They had 
thought more of defense than of good air, and 
they had settled where it was damp and un- 
healthy. The river water was not fit to drink. 
They had so scanty a supply of food that one 
pint of wormy 
wheat and 
barley a day 
was all that could be allowed 
to a man. Such a hot sum- 
mer they had never known. 
Fever broke out, and more 
than half the company died. 

Some of these troubles 
might have been avoided if 
the colonists had been a dif- 
ferent kind of men, but half 
of them had no idea how to 
work with their hands. Some 
had come to see what adven- 
tures they might meet with, 

some to search for gold, and cai-taix john smith 

some with the hope of winning glory and a royal reward by 
finding the Northwest Passage. All these men needed liouses, 
and there were but four carpenters in the party. 




VIRGINIA 



45 



With sickness and hunger and helplessness there would have 
been little hope for the colonists if there had not been among Early adven- 
their number one man, Captain John Smith, who knew what to s"mith° ° ^ 
do. He wrote the story of his hfe, and it is full of adventures 
almost as wonderful as those of Sindbad the Sailor. When he 
came to Virginia, he was only twenty- seven years of age, and in 
those twenty-seven years he had served as a soldier m three or 
four countries, and had been tossed into the sea as one whom a 
company of self -right- 
eous pilgrims thought 
would bring them 
bad luck. Three 
times he had en- 
gaged in shigle 
combat with a Turk- 
ish champion, wliile 
two armies watched 
the contest with de- 
light. He was taken 
prisoner by the Turks 
and made to wear a 
heavy iron coUar. 
He escaped to Rus- 
sia, and finally made his way back to England just in time to 
join the Virgmia expedition. His story is a strange one, but in 
those days of wild adventures it was not impossible for such 
things to come to pass. 

Some of the Indians about Jamestown were hostile, others were 
inclined to be friendly. Smith contrived to compel the hostile 
tribes and persuade the friendly ones to sell the colonists corn. John Smith 
After a while he set out on an exploring trip up one of the rivers, in^jans 
He was taken prisoner, but he showed the Indians his pocket- 




46 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Pocahontas 




A GENTLEMAN OF IGIO 



compass, and they hardly dared to kill a man who had such a 
wonderful article ; he might bring some terrible evil upon them. 
After much discussion, however, it was decided 
to run the risk. His head was laid upon a stone, 
and the warriors were ready to strike, when Po- 
cahontas, the little daughter of the chief, 
claimed the prisoner as hers, and his life was 
saved. This is the story that Smith tells, 
and there is no special reason for doubting it. 
It was not uncommon among the Indians for 
one of the tribe to rescue a prisoner in tliis 
way. The chief, Powhatan, was perhaps a 
little amused to see the child claimirig the 
rights of a grown person ; and then, too, he 
was half afraid to put the man to death, and 
it may be that he was glad to find a way to 

avoid it. Powhatan told Smith that he was now a mem- 
ber of their tribe and might go back to his white friends 
whenever he chose. 

On the day of Smith's return another shipload of men 
arrived from England, but they would do nothing ex- 
cept to search for gold. Before long some earth was 
found that was full of bright yellow grains of metal. 
" That is gold " they cried in delight, and the ship was 
sent back across the ocean with what proved to be 
worthless dirt. A third shipload of men came, but 
they were like the others, — eager to search for gold, 
and with no idea of doing any work. John Smith 
was now governor of the colony, and he wrote to the 
London Company : " Send us but thirty carpenters, 
husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and dig- 
gers up of trees' roots, rather than a thousand of such as we have." 




A VIRGINIA INDIAN 
(From John Smith's map) 



VIRGINIA 



47 



The third ship had also brought a letter from the Company. 
The men who had paid for carrying the colonists to Virginia Three de- 
thought it was time for them to receive some return from their company ^ 
investment. Their demands seem like the three feats required of 
the hero of a fairy-tale, for they said that the colonists must either 
send them a great lump of gold, or discover the Northwest 
Passage, or else find what had become of the English who had 
disappeared from Roanoke Island nearly twenty years earlier. 
"The Company are fools," said Governor Smith bluntly; but 
probably the Company thought that they had asked no more than 
was fair. They may have reasoned, " Where a substance so 
nearly like gold is found, there must be gold not far away, | /;; 
and it is mere idleness and laziness not to discover it." 

What the colony would have done without the common 
sense of Jolin Smith is a question. The plan had been 
that whatever money and food could be obtained should 
be divided equally. The lazy ones knew that they would 
fare as well whether they did any work or not, and so 
they idled their time away. Governor Smith put an end 
to that, and now if a man would not work six hours a 
day, no food was given him ; and these idle gentlemen m 
had to learn to hoe corn and cut down trees. The // ^ 
axes bhstered their fingers, and they seemed to fancy /\-' 
that the pain would be less if they swore about it. The /^-^' 
governor had an account kept of their oaths, and at night indian cork 
one can of cold water was poured down each man's sleeve for 
every oath that he had uttered during the day. This punishment, 
according to John Smith's "History of Virginia," was so success- 
ful that " a man would scarce hear an oath in a week." 

The Indians began to see that the white men meant to stay in 
America, and they were not pleased. Even Powhatan refused to Powhatan is 
sell corn, but the child Pocahontas was friendly, and often the "" ^^^^ ^ 




48 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



lives of the colonists would have been much harder if she and hei 

companions had not brought them corn and venison. 

Three years passed. Governor Smith was badly injured by an 

The starving accident and had to return to England. Then came a terrible 

''"^ winter known as the "starving time," when the colonists suffered 

so severely from cold and famine that in the spring only sixty 

were alive out of five hundred. " It is of no use to try to live in 

Virginia," said they. " We will make our way to Newfoundland 

if we can, and then cross to England." They went aboard their 

small boats and were far down the river when, behold, three 

stately ships came into view, full of provisions. The colonists 

turned back joyfully, and Jamestown was saved. 

On board the vessel was a new governor who ruled ia much 
the same way as John Smith. He gave every man a piece of land 
and said, "You must work if you wish to eat." After a while 
the settlers became more willing to work, for 
they found that it paid better than searchmg for 
gold. A far-seeing man named John Rolfe had be- 
gun to raise tobacco. Smoking was now common 
in England, and smokers would pay a large price 
for Virginia tobacco, so before many years the 
poor Virginians were becoming the rich Virgm- 
ians. 

One chapter of the history of the colony might 
have come from a story-book. When the little 
girl Pocahontas was about twenty years old, she 
married the planter John Rolfe, who took his 
bride to England. The "Lady Rebekah," as she 
A viK(;iNiA PLANTER was tlicrc called, was received as a princess, the 
daughter of a great king, for even then people in Europe could 
not seem to understand that Powhatan was not a mighty sov- 
ereign governing a nation, but a naked savage ruling over a 




The Lady 
Rebekah 



VIRGINIA 49 

little tribe in the wilderness. John Smith went to see the tall, 
handsome, dignified young woman, but when he addressed her as 
" Lady Rebekah," she was grieved and said : " But you must call 
me your child and let me call you father, just as we did m Vir- 
ginia." 

Powhatan sent several of his tribe to England with Pocahontas. 
He was anxious to know how many people there were in the Counting the 
distant land across the ocean, and to one of his men he gave a "^ '^ 
bundle of little sticks, telling him to cut a notch every time he 
met a white man. When the Indian landed in London, he took 







JAMESTOWii IN 10112 
(From an early Dutch account of Virginia) 

one look at the crowds waiting to see the ship come in, grunted in 
amazement, and threw away his bundle of sticks. 

In 1619, when the settlement was twelve years old, three im- 
portant events took place. The first was the arrival of a sliipload A shipload of 
of women. The London Company knew that unless the colonists women 
had homes of. their own, they would come back to England as 
soon as they had made their fortunes. It was much better for 
the Company to have permanent settlers than to have the land 
cultivated first by one man and then by another, so they brought 
over ninety respectable young women who were willing to live in 
the new country. There was many a suitor for the hand of 



50 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The House 
of Burgesses 



every girl. The one whom she chose must pay the cost of her 
passage, — one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, — and 
soon there were ninety marriages and nmety homes. The coming 
of these women and of those who followed them was what made 
Virginia a permanent colony, for when the men had homes in the 
new land, they were no longer eager to make their way back to 
the mother country. 

In England no one was allowed to tax the people except the 

House of Commons, and mem- 
bers of that body were not ap- 
pointed by the king, but were 
chosen by the people. Thus 
far Virginia had been ruled by 
a governor appomted by the 
London Company. The settlers 
did not object to this, but they 
said that there ought also to 
be an assembly chosen by them, 
just as members of the House 
of Commons were chosen by 
the people of England, and that 
only such an assembly should 
have the right to tax them. 
The London Company agreed, 
and an assembly met, called the 
This was the beginning of self- 
government in America, and was the second great event. A de- 
mand for similar rights of taxation, made by the American colo- 
nies a century and a half later, led to the Revolutionary War. 

The third event was the beginning of slavery. The Virginians 
were cultivating great plantations of tobacco, and they needed 
many laborers. It became the custom in England to send over 




SPEAKER'S CHAIR, HOUSE OF BURGESSES 

House of Burgesses, or citizens. 



VIRGINIA 51 

shiploads of criminals to serve the planters for a term of years. The begin- 
Kidnappers would steal children and even grown persons, if they "iTv^ery in 
had no friends to make trouble, and sell them to the planters. America 
Sometimes poor people who wished to come to America would sell 
themselves, that is, they would agree to work a certain time for 
any one who would pay their passage. Even this supply was 
not enough, and in the year 1619 a Dutch sliip brought twenty 
negroes to Virginia from Africa and sold them as slaves. So 
began that slavery which, two centuries later, had so much to do 
with bringing about the great Civil War that came near making 
our United States the divided states. 

Thus in the same year an English colony first began to be per- 
manent, the ideas that led to the Revolution were first manifested 
in America, and the slavery which brought about the Civil War 
made its first appearance. 



SUMMARY. 

In 1607 the first permanent English settlement was made at Jamestown in 
Virginia by the London Company. 

The colonists suffered greatly from sickness, scarcity of food, ignorance of 
how to work, and unwillingness to labor. 

By the wisdom of John Smith even the hostile Indians were induced to 
furnish food, but after his retiu-n to England seven eighths of the colo- 
nists died of starvation and cold. Only the arrival of ships with 
supplies saved the colony. 

The culture of tobacco was introduced. 

In 1619 : — 

Women came from England, and the colonists began to have homes. 
The House of Burgesses, the first representative assembly in America, 

was established. 
Negro slavery was introduced. 



52 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Powhatan tells a friendly chief about Pocahontas's saving John Smith's 

life. 
John Smith's reply to the letter from the Company mentioned. 
One of the colonists describes the punishment given to a profane person. 



VI 

PLYMOUTH, THE FIRST COLONY IN 
ENGLAND 



NEW 



In 1620 the first settlement in New England was made at 

First settle- Plymouth in Massachusetts. The Virgmia colonists came to 

mentin New ^j^erica to make their fortunes: the Massachusetts colonists 
England ' 

came that they might be free to worsliip God m the way that 

they believed would be most pleasing to him. 

In those times most people thought that every 
person in a country ought to belong to the same 
church as the king, and to pay taxes for the sup- 
port of that church. Kmg James belonged to 
the Episcopal Church, or Church of England, 
and he declared that he would make all his sub- 
jects attend it. Those who were not Episcopa- 
hans were fined and imprisoned without mercy. 
Among them were the Puritans and the Sepa- 
ratists. "Puritans" was a nickname that was 
given to those who said that they wished to 
make the church purer. The name "Separa- 
tists" was given to those who wished to leave 
the church, and these were the people whom we 
THE i-iLdKiM DRESS caU thc Pilgrim Fathers. 




PLYMOUTH 



53 



The king forbade them even to hold meetings at one another's ThePilgrims 
houses, and whenever one of his officers found them doing this, f^^^ ° " 
they were either fined or imprisoned. They , knew that 
in Holland men were free to attend whatever 
church they chose, and they determined to go 
to Holland to live. King James had said 
that he would " harry out of the land " all 
who would not attend his church, but 
when the Separatists were ready to go, 
his officers found out their plan and 
arrested the whole company. They made 
a second attempt, and a second time the 
king's men discovered the plan. At 
last they succeeded in making their 
way to Holland. They were in a 
strange land with a people whose cus- 
toms and language were new, but 
they were free. For a while they 
were happy, but as their children grew 

older, the parents found that in spite of all that could be done, 
the young folks were learning the ways of the children around 
them and were talking in their language. 

Badly as the Enghsh government had treated them, they still 
wished to live under its rule, and they began to think of America. 
They talked about Guiana, but decided that it would be too warm. 
In Virginia the Episcopal Church was in power. John Smith had 
explored the coast of New England and had given it its name, but 
he had reported that it was exceedingly cold. They concluded 
that the best place was somewhere between the Potomac and 
Long Island. The London Company would gladly aUow them to 
settle on their land, but the king's permission must be gained. 

When they asked King James for a charter, or written agree- 




WINDMILL IN HOLLAND 



They decide 
to go to 
America 



54 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




THE PILGRIMS' DEPAKTUKE FROM HOLLAND 
(From an old Dutch painting) 



The May- 
flower sets 
sail 



The voyage 



merit that they might settle in America, he said no, he would give 
no charter, but they might go if they chose, and so long as they 
behaved themselves no one should disturb them. 

To England they went, and then set sail for America in two 
vessels, the Speedwell and the Mayflower. The Speedwell sprang 
a leak; and it is possible that the captain's report made the 
injury greater than it was, for he had agreed not only to carry the 
Pilgrims to America, but to remain there with them for a year, 
and he was sorry for his bargain. Over one hundred passengers 
crowded into the Mayflower. Nine weeks they were on the ocean. 
There was an accident. Severe storms drove them out of their 
course, and forced them to take refuge in Massachusetts Bay 
instead of going farther south as they had planned. The land 
about the bay belonged to the Plymouth Company, but the Pil- 
grims knew that the Company would be only too glad to have 



PLYMOUTH 55 

a settlement made on their territory, so they decided to stay 
wliere they were. 

Before they landed, they met in the cabin of the Mayflower and 
wrote a paper promising to obey whatever laws should be made, in search of 
After the paper had been signed, a party went ashore to explore ^ ^°"^^ 
the country and find a suitable place for their home. It was 
November. The shores were barren, " of a wild and savage hue," 
wrote one of the Pilgrims. No place fit for a settlement was 
found. For many days they explored the coast. The captain and 
the sailors grew more and more impatient. " Choose your place 
soon," said the captain, " for I shall keep enough food to carry my 
men to England." The sailors muttered, " We '11 put your goods 
on shore and leave you." 

Another party went out to explore. John Carver, the first 
governor, William Bradford, the second, and the fiery Uttle 
soldier. Miles Standish, were of this party. Such 
troubles as they had! It was so cold that the 
spray froze to their clothes. A heavy storm 
began to rage, the rudder broke, and the mast 
snapped into three pieces. At last they 
reached land, but what land it was they 
knew not, for night had come upon them. 
They contrived to kindle a fire m the drivmg 
rain, and waited for the morning. When morn- 
ing came, the sun shone bright and clear. They the jiayflowi 

/^■i ^ ^ r 1 t 1 J.1 J.1 1 j_ (From the National Museum model) 

were on Clark s Island, and there they kept 

their Sunday with prayer and singing, for great as was their need, 

they would do no exploring on the Lord's Day. 

Monday morning they sailed to the mainland, and went ashore 
at a place that John Smith had named Plymouth, and that they Plymouth 
now agreed to call Plymouth in remembrance of the English town '^^os^" 
from which they had sailed. This was the best place that they 




56 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




PLlTVrOtTTH ROCK 



had seen, and it did not take them long to go back to the ship and 
report that they had decided upon a home. In Plymouth there is 
a rock which is carefully protected and 
guarded, for people beheve that on this 
rock the explorers stepped ashore. De- 
cember twenty-first, the day of their 
landing, is called Forefathers' Day, and 
is celebrated in their honor. There 
was quite a number of children on 

board, and after being crowded into the ship for so many weeks, 
they must have been glad enough to go ashore. 

There was no room to spare, even when they were on land, foi 
after they had been in Plymouth all winter and all the following 
summer, there were but seven houses. For a while they had only 
one house into which they crowded their goods and as many 
persons as possible. Some had to remain on the Mayflower for 
several weeks. 

The story of the winter seems almost like that of the starvmg 
Hardships of time in Virginia, though the Pilgrims were somewhat better sup- 
plied with food. One after another fell iU, and at one time only 
six or seven were well enough to take any care of the others, 
^ ^ The minuter, William Brewster, and the brave soldier, 
]\riles Standish, were the most tender nurses 
tlicit could be imagined; but m spite of their 
cue, more than half the company died in the 
first three months, sometimes two or three 
in a day. Before they left the Mayflower a 
baby was born to Mrs. White, and was named 
Peregrine from the Latin word peregrinus^ 
meaning a wanderer. Strangely enough, 
this little child was one of the survivors of the hard winter. The 
graves of those who died were leveled with the ground and sown 



the first 
winter 




1 ij i.i.n' 

(It belonged to tlie 



VDl 
^'niiis' (lo( tor) 



PLYMOUTH 



57 



with wheat, for Indians had been seen, and there was danger 
that they would attack the little settlement if they knew how 
many had died and how few were left to defend it. 

One morning in the spring an Indian appeared who did not 
skulk behind the trees like the others, but walked straight into Samoset and 
ihe centre of the village and called out, " Welcome, Englishmen, ^quanto 
Welcome ! " The Pilgrims must have felt very much pleased to 
have a word of greeting in the strange land. The Indian's name 
was Samoset. He had been among the fishermen farther north 
and had learned a little English. It was only a very httle, but he 

made the Pilgrims under- 
stand that he had a friend, 
sTANDisirs SWORD Squauto, who had been car- 

ried to England by one of the early explorers, and that Squanto 
could speak English well. 

Before long the Indian chief, Massasoit, came with a number of 
attendants and Squanto for interpreter, 
enemies, 

Avith the wliite people so that he might have aid if he was 
attacked. The Pilgrims gave the chief and his attendants some 
presents and feasted them. Then the two parties 
made a solemn promise that they would assist each 
other, and that if a member of either party injured 
one of the other, he should be punished, whether he 
was an Indian or a white man. This treaty was kept 
for more than fifty years. 

The Pilgrims did not waste their time searching 
for gold ; they cleared the land and planted corn. 
Squanto showed them the Indian way of making sure 
of a rich soil for the corn by putting a small fish into 
each hill, and he taught them many other things that helped them 
to Uve in the new country. When the first autumn came, they 



Massasoit had dangerous Treaty with 
the Narragansetts, — and he wished to make a treaty 




AUMClLilli 



58 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The first 
Thanks- 
giving 



Trouble with 
the Indians 




PILGRIMS GOING TO CIIUKCH 
(From a painting by G. H. Bougliton) 

were so happy at having a good harvest that Governor Bradford 
appointed a day for Thanksgiving, and invited Massasoit and 
ninety of his men to a three-days' feast. 

Not all the red men were as friendly as Massasoit. One day a 
Narragansett Indian strode into Plymouth and asked for Squanto. 
" He has gone fishing," was the reply. Then the Indian threw 
down a queer looking object and stalked away. This proved to be 
a rattlesnake's skin wrapped around a bundle of arrows. There 
was little difficulty in guessing what that meant. The Narragan- 
setts were a large tribe, but it would not do for the little company 
of colonists to show that they were afraid, and Governor Brad- 
ford stuffed the snakeskin full of powder and bullets and sent it 
back with the message, " If you want fighting, come whenever you 
like, and we will give ycu enough of it." Canonicus, chief of the 
Narragansetts, knew that powder and bullets did much damage 
in some mysterious way, and he was afraid to have the dangerous 
things about. He contrived to have them taken away from his 
lands, and for a long time there was no trouble with the Narra- 



PLYMOUTH 



59 



gansetts. Other tribes threatened the colony, but the valiant 
Miles Standish went out with liis 

" Great, invincible army, 
Twelve men, all equipped, having each his rest and his matchlock," 

and came back victorious. 

Plymouth was live hundred miles from the nearest Enghsh 
settlement, and three thousand miles from its king, but the colo- Town meet 
nists seemed to get along very well without a king. Whenever '"^ 
they needed to decide any important question, they held a meet- 
ing to talk it over. Then they voted, and the matter was decided 
as the greater number wished. This assembly was the beginning 
of the New England town meetings of to-day. 

In England there had often been such wild revehngs on Christ- 
mas and other church holidays that the Pilgrims had decided 
to make no differ- 
ence between these 
days and others. 
After a while, some 
people joined the 
Plymouth colony 
who cUd not agree 
with this decision ; 
and on Christmas 
morning, when the 
governor called the 
men out to work as 

usual, they said it went against their consciences to work on Christmas in 
Christmas Day. "Very well," said the governor, "no one shall y"iout 
force you to act against your consciences, and I will spare you 
until you are better informed." At noon, the governor found 
these men having a fine time playing bali and other games. He 
stood looking at them a moment ; then he said, " It goes against 




(iOVERNOK 15K\l)tOKI) DKHhS THE NAKKAG^NSETTS 




60 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

your consciences to work, but it goes against iny conscience to 
see you play wliile otliers work ; so if you wish to keep Christmas 

houses." He took away their 
ball, and they gave up their at- 
tempt to celebrate Christmas. 
Such was the Pilgrim's stern view 
of life. 

The Pilgrims suffered almost 
as much as the settlers of James- 
town, but when trouble came to 
MILES sTANDisH's ARMY Jamcstowu, thc coloulsts would 

say, " Let us go away. We shall never make our fortunes here." 
Why the Pil- When trouble came to Plymouth, the Pilgrims would say, "We 
happy ^^'^^ have come here to worship God in freedom, and He will not for- 
get us." This is why the Pilgrims were never discouraged, and 
why they were happy in spite of all their hardships. 

SUMMARY. 

Persecution in England drove the Pilgrims to Holland and then to America. 
They founded a settlement at Plymouth, but more than half the colonists 

died the first winter. 
The neighboring Indians were friendly, and the white men were victorious 

over the hostile tribes. 
The Pilgrims cultivated the ground instead of searching for gold. 
The Xew England town meeting originated in the Plymouth assembly for 

the discussion of important questions. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

What the last body of explorers reported to the Pilgrims waiting on the 

Mayflower. 
The best way to celebrate Forefathers' Day. 
One of the older children tells Peregrine White about leaving England. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 



VII 

THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 



One day some Puritans were talking of what tlie Pilgrims 
had done to find a home where they could worship God as they The Puritans 
thought right. Some one suggested, " Would it not be well for Pl^" a settle- 
us also to make a settlement in America?" The longer they 
talked, the more interested they became in the plan. Then they 
wrote to several of their Puritan friends in different parts of the 
country, and a number of them agreed to 
unite in forming a colony. 

The Pilgrims were not rich people, and they 
had been obUged to borrow money to carry 
them to America, but many of the Puritans 
were wealthy, and every year their party in 
England was becoming stronger. They 
formed the Massachusetts Bay Company 
and bought of the Plymouth Company what 
is now the greater part of Massachusetts. 
They induced King Charles, son and suc- 
cessor of Kmg James, to give them a char- 
ter, allowing them to make laws for the 
colony. Only one year after the little com- 
pany of friends had talked about America, 
a shipload of Puritans were ready to cross the ocean. They 
landed north of Boston, and settled at a place to which they gave Founding 6f 




KING CHAELES 



the name Salem. ' Salem " is a Bible word meaning 
they hoped that here they would find peace. 



peace, and 



Salem 



62 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Com- 
pany moves 
to America 



Puritans 
with John 
Winthrop 
found 
Boston 



The Puritans in England were becoming more and more 
troubled. King Charles meant to rule the country just as he 
chose without the least regard to what any one else thought, and 
he was so mitruthful that no one could trust his promises. Some 
people began to fear that there would be war between those who 
stood by the king and those who were against him. No one knew 
how such a war might end. If the king should win, he would be 
more opposed to the Puritans than ever ; but if they had flourish- 
ing colonies in America, there 
would be one place where they 
could live in safety. In the 
kmg's charter not a word had 
been said about where the Mas- 
sachusetts Company should 
hold their meetings. They 
decided to hold them, not m 
England, but beside Massa- 
chusetts Bay. It is quite 
possible that the king knew 
nothing about their decision 
until they had gone. Even 
then, he did not object, and it 
may be that he was glad to 
have so many who did not 
agree with him go out of the 
country. 

A little later the English 
Puritans were pleased and encouraged, because John Winthrop, a 
man whom they greatly respected, said that he would go to Amer- 
ica. He was not only rich and well educated, but he was so wise 
that almost all who knew him felt that whatever he advised was 
the best thing to do. He set out in 1630 with a great company of 




'^ ^ 



THE NEW ENGLAND COAST SETTLEMENTS. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 63 




ARRIVAL OF THE WINTHROP COLONY IN BOSTON 
(From W. F. Halsall's paintiug) 

nearly one thousand persons. They brought cattle, goats, pro- 
visions, arms, tools, and farming implements. Several ships were 
needed to carry so many people, and among them was the May- 
flower, that had brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, and had also 
taken the settlers to Salem. Governor Winthrop and his party 
decided to make their home where Boston now is. They called 
the place Boston, because many of the colonists came from Boston 
in England. 

These people had been accustomed to living in comfort, and in 
spite of all their careful preparations the first winter was almost Early hard- 
as hard for them as it had been for the other colonists. Provi- ^ ^^^ 
sions became scarce, and Governor Winthrop was obliged to 
appeal to the Pilgrims for help. A generous supply of food came 
from Plymouth. When that was gone, he asked the people of 
Boston to spend a certain day in fasting and prayer that God 



64 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Content- 
ment of the 
Puritans 




wiNTHROP cur 

(Given by Winthrop 

to the First Chureli, 

Boston) 



Puritan 
narrowness 



would help them. The help came, for a ship laden with pro- 
visions sailed into the harbor, and instead of fasting, they kept a 
day of thanksgiving. 

The lives of the Puritans were hard, but nevertheless Governor 
Wmthrop wrote to England that he had never felt more contented 
than in Massachusetts. Another governor of the colony wrote 
home to his Puritan friends that if they wished to make money, 
Massachusetts was not the place for them ; but if they wished to 
have plenty of wood to bm-n and to build their houses with, pure 
air to breathe, good water to drink, ground to plant, seas and 
rivers to fish in, and if, above all, they wished to be free 
to worship God as they thought right, all these good 
things were waiting for them in Massachusetts. 

Governor Winthrop was so honest and truthful in all 
his dealmgs ^vith the Indians that they called him " Single 
Tongue," meaning that he never told two stories about 
anything. He was always ready to do a kindness. It 
was reported to him one day that a poor man was stealing 
his wood, and he declared sternly, " I '11 soon put a stop 
to that ; " but to the poor man he said, " Friend, I fear 
that you have not wood enough for the winter. Help 
yourself from my pile whenever you choose." Then he 
went to his informer and said, " Did n't I tell you I would put a 
stop to it ? Find him stealing if you can ! " 

The great fault of the Puritans was that they could not under- 
stand how any one else could be as earnest as they in wishing to 
serve God and yet not go about it in the Puritan way. They had 
borne a great deal for the sake of hvmg as they believed right, 
and they meant to govern the new land as they thought best, and 
to allow no one to stay among them who did not agree with their 
ideas. They had town meetings like those of the Plymouth peo- 
ple, but they would let only members of their church vote. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 



65 



Hams 



The ship that brought them food when they were in such great 
need brought also a talented young clergyman named Roger Roger Wil- 
Williams. He too wished to serve God, but he had some ideas 
that seemed to the Puritans very wrong. He said that King 
Charles had no right to give away the land of the Indians unless 
they were willing. " What would the king say to that 'i " whis- 
pered the colonists to one another. " He might even take away 
our charter." Still worse, Roger Williams de- 
clared that it was not right to compel a man 
to attend church or to pay for the support of 
a church against his will. 

The Puritans did not wish to be obliged 
to attend the Episcopal Church, but they 
did wish to oblige whoever came to 
Boston to attend their church. It 
would not do to have such ideas as 
Roger Williams's in their colony, 
they thought, and they told him -r-, 
that the following spring he must 
leave Massachusetts. John Win- 
throp contrived to send word to 
him that they were intending to 
send him back to England ; so 
instead of waiting for spring, he 
went away from the colony in 

the bitterly cold weather. The first toa\^ house i>. boston, 

tale of his life in the forest in snow and storm will be told in the 
story of the founding of Rhode Island. 

To have their children grow up without good schools was some- 
thing that the Puritans could not bear. At first the parents Harvard 

CoUese 
taught their children at home as well as people who were so busy founded 

could teach, but only five years after the settlement in the wilder- 








OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




John Har- 
vard 



John Eliot 
teaches the 
Indians 



ness was begun, a public school was opened in Boston. Many of 
the Puritans were graduates of English universities, and they 
wished to make sure that when their ministers died other educated 
men would be ready to fill the vacant places. They talked the 
matter over in town meeting, and finally, in 1636, 
tliey agreed to give four hundred pounds 
to found a college. 

At that time spending public money for 
instruction was very unusual in Europe. 
This generous appropriation shows how 
much the Puritans cared for education. 
They used to go to the college to hear the 
boys declaim in Latin and in Greek, and 
when one did especially well, his father was 
happy, and he would say to himself, " Per- 
haps my son will some day be a minister 
and preach in our church." 

A clergyman named John Harvard died 
soon after the college was founded, and when his will was read 
it was found that he had left his books and half his money to 
the new school. The name " Harvard " was given in Ins honor. 
There were other gifts. The state gave a year's rent of a ferry. 
Plymouth and the other settlements that began to be scattered 
through New England were ready to help, and once each family 
gave a peck of corn or its value in wampum. A law was soon 
made that m every Puritan village of fifty families there must 
be a school; and if there were one hundred families, a school- 
master must be engaged who could prepare the boys of the town 
for the university. 

Another reason why the college was founded was that the 
Indians might have an opportunity to be educated and to learn 
Christianity. A clergyman named John Eliot was especially 



JOHN HARVARD 
(From French's statue in Cambridge) 



THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 67 

interested in them. He not only preached, but he translated the 
Bible into their language. He did even more ; he lived in the 
wigwams and taught the Indians as if they were his children, 
and tried his best to answer all the questions that they asked. 
Some of these questions were not easy. " If the soul is shut up 
in iron," said they, " can it get out '? " Another question was, 
"When you vote and make a man your governor, how do you 
know that he will be a good governor ? " Another was, " Ought 
a wise man to obey an unwise cliief ?" 

John Eliot was never weary of helping them in every way that 
he could. He taught the women to spin, and he showed the men Progress of 
better ways of tilling the ground. Many Indians learned to read * ^ " '^"^ 
and write EngHsh, and finally one of them delighted the Puritans 
by graduating at Harvard. 

Life was growing a little easier for the settlers. There was 
plenty of food, they had schools and a college, and they had 
sent away Roger Williams, whose ideas about the church dif- 
fered from their own. Their next trouble came from the 
Quakers. The Quaker idea of what was right and what was 
wrong sometimes differed greatly not only from the Puritan 
idea, but from that of all the other English people : for in- 
stance, a Quaker would not take off his hat even to the king, 
because he thought that to do so would be sho^ving to man a 
reverence which belonged to God alone. Other people thought 
that this refusal showed scorn of the king's authority, and 
the village of Boston was much alarmed when it was known 
that a few Quakers had come from England. 

These early Quakers were so different from those of later 
days, and even from those who hved in Boston soon after 

i_i 2.- J.X, J. -1. -J. ^1 • . -. . ■, , QUAKER DKESS 

these times, that it seems as if their mmds must have been 
unbalanced by the persecutions in England. They certainly 
did strange things. One man forced his way into the court and 




OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



and the 
Puritans 



The Quakers accused the judge of putting iiipocent men to death. Another 
went into the church with a glass bottle in each hand, and in 
the midst of the service broke the bottles before the people, and 
cried, " Thus will the Lord break you all in pieces." 

The Puritans banished them, but they refused to stay away, for 
they said that they should obey God rather than man, and God 
wished them to preach to the people of Massachusetts. Then they 
were imprisoned or whipped or branded with hot irons. These 
penalties were brutal, but they were less severe than those in- 
flicted in England upon men who disobeyed the laws, 
for while to-day a man is hanged only for wilful mur- 
der or for treason, there were then in England two 
hundred offenses for which one might lose his life. 
Fmally, four Quakers who returned a second and even 
a third time after being ordered to stay away were put 
to death. The Puritans wrote to the king that these 
four were hanged because they persisted in refusing to 
obey the laws of the colony. This was true, but if the 
Puritans had not been quite so sure that their belief 
was the only right one, it may be that they would have 
had more charity for the Quakers and would not have 
made such severe laws against them. 
I In 1675, almost twenty years after the coming of 
' the Quakers, there was a terrible war between In- 
dians and colonists. Massasoit was always true to 
the English, but after he was dead, his son, " King 
as he was called, had different ideas. Many more white 




m 



THE PILLORY 



(One of the Puritan pun- 
ishments) 



King 
Philip's War 



Pliilip,' 

men had come, little villages were everywhere, and Philip felt 
that if the English w^ere not driven out at once, the comitry 
would be lost to the Indians. He persuaded other tribes to join 
him, and they made fierce attacks upon one village after another 
in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. In Massa- 



THE MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY 



69 



chiisetts more than half the towns were either partly or wholly 
destroyed. One thousand men and large numbers of women and 
children were slain. 

At last King PliUip was besieged at Mount Hope in Khode Death of 



Island. One of his men advised him to surrender, but Philip was 



King Philip 



so angry that he struck the man dead in a moment. In 
revenge, the dead man's brother crept away to the whites, 
and told them where to find his chief. Phihp was slain, 
and his head was fastened to a pole and set up on the 
green in Plymouth. After this war, southern New 
England had no more trouble from the Indians. 

When the Puritans had been in America more than 
half a century, they became greatly alarmed, because 
they believed that there were witches among them, 
and witches were thought to be special friends of 
Satan. Some nervous girls played various pranks, 
and declared, probably more in fun than in 
earnest, that they could not help it, for they 
were "bewitched." When they saw that the 
matter was taken seriously, it is very hkely that 
they became so excited that they could not con- 
trol themselves, and began to believe their own stories. These Witchcraft 
girls and others began to point out those who had bewitched 
them, and before the colonists came to their senses, nineteen inno- 
cent people had been hanged. 

All over Europe people thought that there was such a thing as 
witchcraft. A century before the Puritans crossed the ocean, five 
himdred persons were put to death in three months on the charge 
of being witches. Fifty years after this alarm in Massachusetts 
a new law was made against them in England, and many people 
were executed. 




KING PHILIP 
(After Paul Revere's piotme) 



70 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



SUMMARY. 

English Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay Company to insure them 

a refuge in time of persecution and a place for freedom of worship. 
Under the leadership of John Winthrop they founded Boston in 1630. 
They did not wish to have any one in the colony whose belief differed 

from theirs ; therefore they drove away Roger Williams, and later the 

Quakers. 
Harvard College was founded in 1636 to educate both whites and Indians. 

John Eliot did much good as a missionary to the Indians. 
King Philip's War in 1675 caused many deaths and was the last of the 

Indian troubles in southern New England. 
The Puritans executed nineteen persons for supposed witchcraft. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A Puritan tells a friend why he wishes to go to New England. 

The reply of the Pilgrims to Winthrop's appeal for food. 

King Philip tells his men why he wishes to make war upon the whites. 



VIII 

MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, RHODE ISLAND, AND 
CONNECTICUT 



MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE. 

When tlie Indian Squanto, who was so good a friend to the 
Pilgrims, was a young man, he Uved on the coast of what is now 
called Maine. One day a ship came to anchor near the shore, and 
the Indians paddled out m their birch-bark canoes to see the white 
men and sell furs to them. Squanto and four others were seized 
and carried away across the ocean, for the captain thought that 
after they had learned EngUsh they could b6 brought back and 



MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE 



71 



made to serve as interpreters when the white men wished to 
trade. 

It was an unpardonable crime. The only good tiling about the 
whole story was that these five Indians were very kindly treated Squanto in 
in England. Squanto and two others were taken into the family England 
of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, who was a friend of Sir Walter 
Raleigh. Sir Ferdinando was only a few years older than the 
Indians, and he was much interested in them. Ix ^vas not long 
before they could talk with him, and they told him so much about 
their friends and their home, the clear air, the pure water, and 
the great forests, that Sir Ferdinando and others began to be 
eager to found a colony. 

Sir Ferdinando had no trouble in findmg sailors who would 
go to Mame and bring back a 




THE BEA'i , :■ 
(An Important New Kugiaiid li 



cargo of fish or furs, but colo- 
nizing was a different matter, 
for the men who first tried 
to make a settlement had re- 
ported that the place was too 
cold to live m. Still he was 
not discouraged. He sent out 
ship after ship to fish and to 
trade, and finally he persuaded one captain, who was also a phy- 
sician, to spend the ^vulter near where Saco now stands. This 
captam went home in the spring and said that the climate was 
perfect, and that not one of Ms men had even had a headache. 

A few years after John Smith returned to England from James- 
town, he sailed as captain of one of Sir Ferdinando's vessels. 
Sixteen men were with him who bad agreed to become colonists, 
and with such a leader to help and advise them, it is probable 
that they would have succeeded ; but wherever John Smith went, 
he met with adventures, and so it was on this trip. England and 



Attempts to 
found a 
colony in 
Maine 



John Smith 
again 



72 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




Dover and 
Portsmouth 



France were at war, and a French vessel took the captain and his 
sixteen men prisoners, and carried tliem to France. 

Stni Sir Ferdinando did not give up. He united with a brave, 
resolute man, Captain John Mason, who had been in Newfound- 
land and was not afraid of the cold weather of Maine. These two 
men and others who joined with them published glowing descrip- 
tions of the new country. They said the climate was the most 
delightful in the \\orld, the soil was so rich that generous liar- 
\ ests could be raised with little work, the forests were full of 
fur-bearmg animals, and the great trees were the best timber 
for ship-buildmg that could be found. Besides all this, the 
bays and the rivers were swarming with fish. 

Colonists began to go to the new province, which was after- 
^^ardb named Maine, or the mainland. The colonies were 
hardly more than fishing stations, and were 
scattered about over the southwestern 
corner of what is now Maine, and the 
eastern part of what is now New Hamp- 
shire. It is probable that the first settle- 
ment in Maine was made at Pemaquid 
Point in 1625. This soon became a 
busy place. Indians who nad furs to 
sell came to Pemaquid, and ships came 
from England not only to bring tools 
and other things that the colonists 
needed, but to carry back to England lumber and furs, and the 
fish that had been caught and cured. The Pilgrims were culti- 
vating corn, and they used to send boatloads of it to Pemaquid to 
exchange for furs. The earliest settlements in New Ham])sliire 
were made at Dover, 1623-1627, and at Portsmouth in 16.31. 

1 This brick structure, still standing, was erected in 1729 on the site of the 
wooden building mentioned on page 73, of which there is no picture. 



n 



If T ] 



V 







THK OLD .SOLTH MEETING-HOUSE' 



MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE 



73 




After a while Sir Ferdinando and Captain Mason concluded to The colony 
divide their land ; the former took Maine, and the latter took the ^^' ^ 
land to the west of the Piscataqua River. Captain Mason was 
once governor of a town in Hampshire, England, and in memory 
of this he named his land New Hampshire. How far west this 
land extended was uncertain, and what is now called 
Vermont was claimed at times by both New 
Hampshire and New York. 

In 1641 the few scattered settlements 
in New Hampshire asked the protection 
of the Massachusetts Bay colony. As 
for Maine, after Sir Ferdinando died, his 
grandson offered to sell the land to the 
English king, Charles II. The king was a 
little slow in giving his answer, but 
Massachusetts was quick, and before 
Charles II. had decided whetlier he could 
raise the money or not, Massachusetts 
had bought the land and paid for it. The king was angry that Maine joined 
a colony should dare to do such a thing as to buy land that he chusetJ' 
wished to have. Boston wrote him a letter saying that she was 
sorry to have displeased his Majesty, but she made no offer to 
give back the purchase. One man in Boston wrote indignantly 
to a friend in England that the king's letter was worth no more 
in Massachusetts than an old London newspaper. 

This was hardly true, but it was true that more than once 
when the king had made a law which would injure the colony, 
Massachusetts had quietly disobeyed it. More than that, the 
Puritans would not allow the Episcopal Church in their colony, 
and this did much to arouse the wrath of tlie king. Charles sent Massachu- 
over and demanded their charter. The Puritans held a town hJr charter 
meeting in the Old South Meetmg-House, and every man voted 



BLOCKHOUSE IN MAINE 

(Built near the junction of the Kennebec and 

Sebasticook rivers) 



74 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



New Hamp- 
shire and 
Massachu- 
setts royal 
provinces 



not to return it. Then the king declared that whether the char- 
ter was in England or in America, it should no longer hold good. 
He planned to send over one of the most cruel, hard-hearted men 
in England as governor ; but before this could be done, the king 
died. The charter, however, no longer had any value. 

New HampsMre had been made a " royal province," and now 
the new king declared that Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Maine 
should form another. These colonies could no longer choose their 
own officers, but must be ruled by whatever governor the king 
chose to send them. 







EHODE ISLAND. 

When Roger Williams was ordered to leave Massachusetts, the 
court told him that he might remain 
until spring. They thought that he 
would keep still if they showed him so 
much favor ; but mstead of keeping still, 
he preached oftener than ever. Then 
the court said he must be taken to Eng- 
land, and a boat was sent to Salem to 
bring him to Boston. However, when 
the officers landed in Salem, Roger Wil- 
liams was nowhere to be found. Some 
one had Warned him secretly, and he had 
shpped away. The one who warned 
him was, as has been said, no less a man 
than John Winthrop, and with the warn- 
ing had come the advice to go to the 
Indians about Narragansett Bay, because that place was free 
from any English claim. 
Roger Wil- It was a cold, sno^\y night Avhen the message came, but there 
Salem ^^^^^ was no tune to lose, so Roger Williams said good-by to his wife 




FIRST MEETIIsG-JluLsi'- IN ^ALh.M 
(Where Roger Williams is said to have preached) 



RHODE ISLAND 75 

aad children, took liis staff, and went out bravely into the wilder- 
ness. When he was an old man, he said he coidd "" feel yet " the 
winter snow of that journey. 

For more than three months he lived in the forest. Sometimes 
he had a guide, but oftener he found his way alone as best he His wander- 
might. Sometimes he slept in a hollow tree; often he had no '"^^ 
fire. He had friends in the forest, however, for he had always 
been kind to the Indians and had learned their language. They 
were glad to repay his kindness, and when he came to the wig- 
wam of Massasoit, there was a warm welcome awaiting him. 
Canonicus, too, the fierce warrior who had sent to Plymouth the 
bundle of arrows bound together with a rattlesnake's sldn, gave 
him tender greetmg, and '' loved him as a son." 

Possibly Roger Wilhams had no thought of foimding a colony. 
He had always cared for the Indians, and now that the whites Providence 
would not hsten to him, perhaps he meant to live among the red 
men and teach them. Five friends came to him from Massachu- 
setts, however, and they paddled down the Providence River m 
search of a place to settle. Some Indians saw them and called 
out in friendly welcome, " What cheer ? What cheer '? " an old- 
fashioned form of greeting that they had learned from the whites. 
He ran ashore and had a little talk with these Indians. Prob- 
ably they told him of a good place for his house, at the foot of 
a hill near a sprmg of water. This was in 1636, and was the 
beginning of the city of Providence, so called because, as Roger 
Williams said, it was by the providence of God that he had made 
iiis way thither. 

The exile's wife and children soon came to him. Governor 
Winslow of Plymouth visited him and gave Mm a piece of gold. Growth of 
The Puritans Avished people to worship God in their way ; Roger ^ ^° °"^ 
Williams Avished every one that came to his colony to be free to 
worship God in any way that he thought right. Before two years 



76 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Rhode 
Island and 
Providence 
Plantations 



had passed, many had come. He was in the comitry of the Narra- 
gansetts, and Canonicus was glad to sell his friend what land he 
wanted for a colony. 

Among those who came from Massachusetts was a company 
that meant to go farther south, but Roger WiUiams urged them 
to stay near liim, and Canonicus was willing to sell them the Isle 
of Khodes, or Rhode Island. The two colonies made a kind of 
agreement to help each other. That is why the 
smallest state in the Union has the longest name, 
for the name that must be used in legal documents 
is " State of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions." 

This tiny state was almost the only place m the 
world where some one form of worsliip was not 
favored. It is no wonder that people with all kinds 
of ideas came to settle beside Narragansett Bay. It 
has been said that "if a man had lost his religious 
opinions, he might have been sure to find them again 
in some village of Rhode Island." ^ 

A few years later, Massachusetts, Plymouth, 
Connecticut, and New Haven agreed to defend one 
another if there was need. Rhode Island would 
have been glad to join the league, but the others 
said this could not be unless the colony would be- 
come a part of either Massachusetts or Plymouth. Maine, too, 
was shut out, because the laws of Maine favored the Episcopal 
Church. 

It seemed impossible for the little state to stand alone without 

some protection, and the Rhode Islanders sent Roger Williams to 

foJ\"chamr England to ask for a charter. The story of what he had done for 

the Indians had gone before him, and the Enghsh government 

1 Bancroft's History of the United States. 




UOGEK WILLI A.MS 

(From the statue in 

Providence) 



The New 

England 

Confederacy 



Rhode 



CONNECTICUT 77 

vvillingly gave him a charter, allowing the Rhode Island colonists 
freedom to make whatever laws they thought best and to choose 
their own governor and other officers. Roger Williams crossed 
the ocean again, happy in the news that he was bringing to the 
colony. When he came to the bank of the river that flowed by 
his house, he saw that the whole shore was lined with canoes, for 
the people of Providence had all come out to welcome the man 
whom they respected and loved. His canoe was placed in the 
midst, and so they paddled to the farther shore. 

It is no wonder that they welcomed him, for Roger Williams Roger Wil- 
was one of the most lovable men that appear m all the colonial 1^^^ ^ ^ ' 
history. The Puritans had driven him into the wilderness, and 
then had made liim lose many thousand pounds by forbidding him 
to send goods from the port of Boston to England, but even of 
them he had not a hard word to say, and when the opportunity 
came to do them a favor, he did it as eagerly as if they had been 
his warmest friends. 

CONNECTICUT. 

A colony that is only sixteen years of age seems hardly old 
enough to begin to found other colonies, but this is just what English in- 
Massachusetts did. Not long after the coming of the Puritans, on^th*°c^"'^ 
the chief of the country along the Connecticut River had asked necticut 
both Massachusetts and Plymouth to send Enghshmen to settle 
on his lands. Some of the colonists began to think of going there 
to trade. It was an especially good place, for the Indians could 
much more easily float down the stream with their canoes full of 
furs than they could make their way through the forest and bring 
the furs on their backs. 

The EngUsh were not the only ones who saw that it was worth 
wliile to get possession of this valuable river. The Dutch were Trouble with 
settled in New York, and they had forts in New Jersey. They too ^^^ ^"^^^ 



78 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



wished to bold the Connecticut. The Plymouth people thought 
that the English had a better right to the territory than the Dutch, 
and a few of them set out for the mouth of the river. They 
carried with them the frame of a house, and, altbougli the Dutch 
threatened to fire upon them from the fort at Hartford, kept on 
up the river. When they were where Windsor now is, they set 
up their house, and began to trade for furs as calmly as if there 

was not a Dutchman 
in the land. Others 
came, the Dutch were 
driven out, and in 
Hartford, the very 
place where the Dutch 
fort had stood, there 
was soon a small com- 
pany of Englishmen. 
It was a hard win- 
ter, and it may be 
that report made the 
Puritans de- sufferings of the settlers even worse than they really were, for 
[n ConnectU several hundred people who hved near Boston were thinking 
cut about movmg to Connecticut, and the other colonists did not wish 

to have them leave Massachusetts. Those who wished to go said 
that the towns m Massachusetts were so near together that there 
was not pasture for their cattle. " But you have made a solenui 
promise to support and aid our commonwealth," said the court. 
" That is true," answered they, " but how better can we support 
it than by keeping both the Dutch and the Enghsh who do 
not think as we do from settling so near us ? " There was also 
another reason for moving, but little was said about it. In the 
Massachusetts colonies no one was allowed to vote who was not 
a member of the Puritan church ; and most of the people who 




CONNECTICUT 



79 



established 



wished to move to Connecticut thought that every man should 
have a right to vote. At last the court agreed that they might go. 

The first settlers were led by their pastor, Thomas Hooker, of 
Cambridge. There were about one hundred in this company, and A forest 
they must have had a delightful journey. It was June. The J°"^"^y 
trees were green, and the flowers were in bloom. Through the 
forest they went, making their beds of the boughs of trees, sleep- 
ing under the stars, and waking to the singing of birds. Two 
weeks they spent on the journey, and it must have seemed al- 
most like a picnic two weeks long. There was no fear of hun- 
ger, for before them they drove one hundred and sixty cattle, 
and there was sure to be plenty of milk, even if all other food 
failed. 

These were the people who in 1636 founded Hartford. Others Settlements 
came, and within a few months Wethersfield and Wmdsor were 
settled by colonists from other towns near Bos- 
ton. A few people had come to these places 
before, but until 1636 there were not enough to 
call their commg the fomiding of a town. 

Three years later the three to^vns formed a 
union and decided upon the laws that should 
govern them. These laws allowed every man 
to vote, whether he was a member of the church 
or not. There was one thing that would cer- 
tainly have aroused the king's wrath if he had 
not been too busy to pay any attention to it, 
and this was that these laws did not even 
mention his Majesty. Evidently the Connecticut settlers thought 
that they could manage their own affairs without any help from 
the king. 

Before the colonists were fairly settled in their new home, there 
was trouble A\ith the Pequots. These Indians did not make any 




FIRST MEETINti-HOUSt. IN 
HAKTFOKD 



80 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Roger Wil- general attack, but tliey would come as near the settlement as 
thePurftans ^^^^^ dared, and seize one man or a small group of men and put 
them to death. Roger Williams learned that the Pequots were 
trying to persuade the Narragansetts to join them in making war 
upon the whites. He did not stop to remember how Massachu- 
setts had treated him, but without a moment's delay he sent 
word to Governor Winthrop of the danger. He did much more 
than to send a message. He knew that the Pequots would try 
to persuade the Narragansetts to join them, and in wild, stormy 

weather he paddled his canoe 



In the wig- 
wam of Ca- 
nonicus 




across Narragansett Bay, and 
went straight to the wigwam 
of Canonicus. There stood the 
Pequot messengers, and Ca- 
nonicus was on the pomt of 
yielding 

They knew why Roger Wil- 
liams had come. They glared 
at him angrily, and would have 
killed him if they had dared. 
Canonicus, too, would have 
killed any other man who had 
come so boldly into his wig- 
wam ; but he was very fond of 
Roger WilUams, and he listened closely to what he had to say 
It was several days before the chief would decide. Roger Wil 
liams talked, and the Pequots talked. When they lay down to 
sleep at night, the white man hardly expected to be alive in the 
morning. At last Canonicus told the Pequots that he would not 
unite with them. 

The Pequots decided to make war without help, and all through 
the winter they put to death every colonist that thev could seize. 



CONNECTICUT VALLEY SETTLEMENTS 




CONNECTICUT 81 

Then Connecticut appealed to Massachusetts and Plymouth for The Pequot 
help. Near where Stonington, Connecticut, now stands was a ^^ 
Pequot village. Around it was a stout palisade, or fence of tree 

trunks set close 

together in the 

=^ ground. There 

MATCHLOCK AND REST ^^g^C but tWO 

openings, and those were very narrow. The colonists closed 
them and threw lighted torches over the palisades. The wig- 
wams blazed, and out of seven hundred Pequots only five escaped. 
For nearly forty years no Indians dared to attack the English. 

One month after this terrible fight, New Haven was founded, 
in 1638. Hartford had been settled by men who thought the Founding of 
Bostonians were too strict. New Haven was settled by a' com- ^^ ^^^" 
pany from England who feared that Boston was not strict enough. 
This, company was made up chiefly of wealthy merchants; and 
just as the Reverend Thomas Hooker had led his church to Hart- 
ford, so the Reverend John Dp.'/enport led his church to New 
Haven. Boston would have been glad to have them stay in Mas- 
sachusetts, but they had landed just after the banishment of 
Roger Wilhams, when Boston 
seemed to be full of new opmions, 
and religious matters were benii> 

discussed more freely than Da\- ^,^,j^t " ->&. .*i#^ 

enport thought was right; and " ^''^ ^ 

that is why he made his Vka\ 
through the forest to Connecticut AJ/Ad 
He paid the Indians ten coats foi '^^ ' " ^^' 

a piece of land on the coast, and 
there he founded New Haven. ^ ^ ' ^' i nm vm. . i < i. i 

From almost the first Connecticut had good schools, for these 
people were as eager as those in Massachusetts for the education 




82 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Education in of their children 

Connecticut ^^^^^^ together to found a college. 



The Charter 
Oak 



trr 



"^ 



In 1700 ten men from the different settlements 
Each laid a few books on a 
table and said, "I give these books for the founding of a college 
in this colony." This little pile of books was the beginning of 
Yale College. 

The Connecticut valley being fertile, there was plenty of 

1 food. The laws were 

strict, but no man was 
persecuted for thinking 
what he would on re- 
ligious subjects. It 
was a quiet, happy, 
peaceful country, and 
later it was nicknamed 
"The Land of Steady 
Habits." 

When Massachusetts, 
Plymouth, and Maine 
were united as a royal 
province, the first governor was determined to seize the charter 
of Connecticut, and he went to Hartford with a company of sol- 
diers to get possession of it. He and the Connecticut officials 
discussed the matter all one afternoon. The governor would not 
yield, and at last the charter was brought in and placed upon a 
table. It grew dark and candles were lighted. Then, tradition 
says, the candles were suddenly put out, and when they were 
lighted again, no charter was to be seen. Long afterwards, Con- 
necticut presented one Captain Wadsworth with a sum of money, 
saying that he had cared for the charter " in a very troublesome 
season." It is thought that he hid it in an oak-tree, and a tree in 
Hartford which fell half a century ago was often pointed out as 
the " Charter Oak " in which the charter was concealed. 



HOUSE WHERE YALE COLLEGE WAS FOUNDED 
(It was the liorae of Kev. Samuel Kussell, in Brantord, Conn 



EARLY CUSTOMS OF NEW ENGLAND 83 



SUMIklARY. 

Maine and Neio Hampshire. The kidnapping of Squanto aroused the inter- 
est of Sir Ferdinando Gorges in Maine. 

Gorges and Mason made their first settlements at Pemaquid Point in Maine 
and Portsmouth in New Hampshire. 

Massachusetts bought Maine from Gorges, and Maine, Massachusetts Bay, 
and Plymouth were united in one crown colony. 

Rhode Island. Roger Williams, driven from Massachusetts, was befriended 
by the Indians. He founded Providence in 1636, and gave religious 
fi-eedom to all who came. A company from Massachusetts settled 
Rhode Island, and Williams obtained a charter from the king. 

Connecticut. Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford were settled from 
]\Iassachusetts, in spite of the claims of the Dutch, 

They were quiet, peaceful colonies, save for the war with the Pequots. 
They established schools and Yale College. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Squanto tells Sir Ferdinand about his capture. 

Describe Roger Williams's setting out into the forest. 

Describe the Connecticut colonists traveling through the forest. 

Describe the scene when Roger Williams entered the wigwam of Canonicus. 



IX 

EARLY CUSTOMS OF NEW ENGLAND 

When a settler comes to a new land, his first thought is to 
make some kind of shelter for himself. The first houses in New 
England were built of logs, for wood was plenty and easy to 
work. The chinks between the logs were filled with chips and 
clay. Glass was expensive, and m the earliest days oiled paper 



84 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The first 
houses in 
New Eng- 
land 



The kitchen 



was used for windows. Since wood was to be had for the cut= 
ting, the fireplaces were made large enough for the great logs 
that were brought in from the forest. There was plenty of heat, 
but so large a share of it went up the chimney that people cannot 
have been very comfortable, according to our ideas of comfort. 

It was the custom to "bank up " the house for winter, that is, 
to pile up a bank of earth around it to keep out the cold. 

Stoves were not used until long 
after the Pilgrims came, and they 
cannot have been very good, 
for one writer of those days 
said that he could hardly 
keep his ink from freezing, 
even when it was close 
beside the stove. There 
was no way of heating the 
meeting-houses. Babies 
only a few days old were 
brought mto these frigid 
buildings to be baptized 
with water in which the 
ice had to be broken. Wo- 
men sometimes carried 
little foot-stoves, which cannot have given out much warmth ; and 
there the people sat through the long sermons. They would have 
thought themselves exceedingly wicked if any discomfort had 
made them wish to go home. 

In the house the important place was the kitchen. There was 
the great fireplace with its iron crane, a long arm that stretched 
out over the fire and could be moved back and forth. " Pot- 
hooks" were hung to this, and from these hung kettles. Tin 
" bake-ovens," like small cupboards open at one side, were set up 




AN EARLY SETTLER'S HOUSE 



EARLY CUSTOMS OF NEW ENGLAND 85 




A FOOT-STOVE 



before the fire, and in them were baked biscuit ; or on hooks in- 
side pieces of meat were fastened to roast. Strong hooks were 
fixed into the beams that ran across the top of the room. 
Poles were laid on these, and from them strings of dried 
apples or pumpkui were suspended. Sometimes a chain 
hung from these hooks in front of the fire and 
held a turkey or a chicken to be roasted before 
the blaze. " Brick ovens " were made after a 
while. They were little brick caverns beside 
the fireplaces. A fire was built in the oven, 
and when it was well heated the coals were 
raked out, and the beans and brown bread and chickens and pies 
and cakes were put in to cook. 

The early settlers had stools and benches, but few chairs. 
They ate from wooden " trenchers," or dishes made by hollomng Furniture 
out pieces of wood. Miles Standish bequeathed twelve of these ^^^ dishes 
trenchers in his will. A trencher generally served for two per- 
sons, and one large drinking cup was enough for a table. There 

were no forks, for they 
had hardly been intro- 
duced into England, 
but there were knives 
and wooden or pewter 
spoons. Pewter dishes 
were looked upon as 
elegance itself, and 
even the poorest house- 
keeper would not have 
dared to risk the scorn 
of her neighbors by 
leaving her pewter un- 

NEW ENGLAND KITCHEN ^ ^ 

( Showing crane, brick oven, and beams in the ceiling) SCOUred. 





86 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

The bedrooms were icy in the cold New England winters, and 
Bedrooms it is no wonder that every household had its long-handled warm- 
ing-pan. This was filled with coals, the cover was shut down, 
and then the pan was drawn back and forth between the sheets. 
Beds and pillows were valuable articles, and even so great a man 
as the governor of a colony did not scorn to make a will that 
bequeathed his daughter a feather bed and a bolster. 

The parlor, or " best room," had no carpet until the later colo- 

The parlor nial days, but both it and the kitchen had "sanded" floors; that 

is, sand was thrown upon the boards, and sometimes so carefully 

as to make almost a regular pattern. As soon as the 

colonists became at all comfortable, every house must have 

a parlor, though it was rarely used except for weddings 

and funerals and the minister's calls. In the summer the 

parlor fireplace was filled with sprays of asparagus, or 

TINDER BOX somctimcs with laurel leaves. 

boxfo7t"nderSSie I^ this parlor there was sure to be a corner cupboard, 

in the cover) ^ buffct, somctimcs with glass doors ; and when the days 

of china came, the rare bits were displayed in the upper part, 

while in the closet below was often the " company cake " and 

the home-made wine. If a member of the family had died, there 

was a " mourning piece " on the waU. This was the picture of a 

gravestone wherepn was written the person's name. A Avoman 

weeping usually bent over the stone, and a drooping willow filled 

one side of the picture, or canvas, for sometimes these " pieces " 

were worked on canvas with silk or worsted. 

The home of the colonist was a real manufactory. There were 
Home man- no "department stores " in those days, and few of the settlers had 
ufactures nuich ready money. Flax and wool were spun and woven and 
dyed and made into clothes, all in a man's own house. Stock- 
ings and mittens were knit by hand, and hats were made of 
home-braided straw. Soap was home-made. Butter and cheese 



EARLY CUSTOMS OF NEW ENGLAND 



87 




The Yankee 
jack-knife 



FLAX WHEEL 



were always made at home. To be called a "good butter-hand" 
was a great honor. For lights, the first settlers had pine-knots. 
There was no tallow in the earliest days, so candles were made 
of the beautiful and sweet-smelling pale green 
bayberry wax. 

The men bore their part in these home manu- 
factures. In farming implements wood was used 
wherever it could be employed, and in the long 
evenings the jack-knives of the masculine part 
of the family were kept busy whittling out teeth 
for rakes, handles for hoes, reels for winding 
yarn, wooden spoons and dishes, tubs, pails, 
buckets, yokes, flails, snowshoes, skimmers, and handles for axes, 
and numberless other things. The men made the brooms, some- 
times of birch twigs and . sometimes of hemlock branches. A 
Yankee with his jack-knife could almost furnish a house and a 
barn. 

The children did their part of the work of the house. The 
girls helped their mother, and the boys helped their father. If Self-reliance 
the boys wished for playthings, they made them. If a boy must ^ ' ^^" 
have a basket, he made it of birch bark ; while for paint he used 
elderberry or pigeon berry juice. A boy who grew up in this 
Avay learned to depend upon himself, and to know what to do 
if he fomid himself in any difficulty. 

When the K evolutionary War broke out, these boys 
had become men who were not afraid to try to do 
things they had never done before. They kneAv little 
about military drill, but they could invent new ways 
of making their attacks, and they could capture forts 
in ways not laid down in the books. In some of the wool spinning wheel 
little liamlets away from city life, the old customs lingered far 
uito this centurv. Many a man, not yet fifty years old, ate in his 




88 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

Effect of this boyhood dinners that were cooked in a brick oven, prepared 
training " quills," or pieces of the hollow elder stem, to be wound on the 

little "quilhng wheel" with yarn for use in the shuttle of his 
mother's loom, and set off for college in a suit of his mother's 
spuming and weaving. These were the kind of boys who knew 
an unearned diploma was not worth the parchment it was written 
on, the kind of boys that the coUege and the country were proud 
to possess. 

SUMMARY. 

The New England colonists lived in log houses, cooked before open fires, 
had simple furniture and wooden or pewter dishes. 

They manufactiired most of their clothes, tools, and household utensils. 
, The children learned to be self-reliant, and their training showed in the 

Revolutionary War. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Describe an evening in a colonial kitchen. Tell what each member of the 

family was doing. 
Describe a cold day in a colonial house. 



X 

NEW YORK, DELAWARE, AND NEW JERSEY 

About the time when the Pilgrims were planning to leave Eng- 
Henry Hud- land and go to Holland, a company of English merchants were 
making ready to send a ship to search, not for a Northwest Pas- 
sage, but for a Northeast. They thought there might be a way 
to sail north of Russia, and then south to eastern Asia. They 
chose for the cantain of their vessel a friend of John Smith, a 



son 



NEW YORK, DELAWARE, NEW JERSEY 89 



brave English sailor named Henry Hudson. He set out on the 
voyage, but he had to come back and report that the ice kept him 
from going to Asia. He had been " farthest north," how 
ever, and he found himself famous. 

A Dutch company then induced him to com- 
mand one of their ships. Again the ice pre- 
vented him from sailing farther to the north- 
east, but he made up his mind to go m search 
of the Northwest Passage instead 
of returning to Holland. He had 
with him a letter from John Smith 
saying that he beUeved the Passage 
might be not far north of Chesa- 
peake Bay. One bright September 
morning Hudson sailed into the 
mouth of the river that is named 
for him, though he spoke of it as 
the " River of Mountains." IJp the 
stream went the little vessel, the 
Half-Moon, but the water was more 
and more fresh. Still he kept on, 
until just beyond where Albany 
now stands the stream began to 
grow shallow. This was no North- 
west Passage. 

Hudson made another voyage to Hudson Bay and Hudson 
Strait, this time for an English company. His crew rebelled, and Hudson's 
finally turned him and a few others adrift in a small boat, and no ^^^^ voyage 
one knows his fate. 

Hudson had called the country about the " River of Moun- 
tains " " as fair a land as can be trodden by the foot of man ; " 
but the Dutch were more interested in the thought that the 




THK HALF-MOON LEAVING AMSTERDAM 

(Showing the Weepers' Tower, where mariners took leave 

of their friends) 



90 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Dutch 
traders in 
America 



Beginnings 
of New York 



Settlers on 
Manhattan 
Island 



North River— as they called the stream, since the Delaware was 
known as the South River — was convenient for the Indians tc 
float down with canoes full of furs. Furs could be bought for 
beads, jack-knives, red cloth, and trinkets of various kinds, and 
could be sold in Europe at a high price. It is no wonder that 
Dutch traders hastened to send ships to America. 

There must be forts to protect the traders, and in 1614 a fort 
was built on Manhattan Island. That was the beginning of the 
city of New York. Another name for Holland was the Nether- 
lands, or the lower 
lands ; and the Dutch 
called their possessions 
in America New Neth- 
erland, just as John 
Smith called the land 
north of them New 
England, and the 
French named the 
land that they claimed 
New France. More 
forts were built, and 
one stood where Albany now is. One of the early ^Tilers called 
it " a miserable little fort, built of logs." 

Even if the settlers were protected by " miserable little forts," 
many of them were making fortunes by trading in furs. This 
was a good thing for the traders, but the Dutch West India Com- 
pany wished to have permanent settlements, and they began to 
think of sending colonists to the Hudson. The Indians were de- 
lighted to sell INIanhattan Island for twenty-four dollars' worth of 
beads, brass buttons, ribbons, and red cloth. The settlement 
around the little fort was named New Amsterdam. The settlers 
lived m log houses, one story high, with roofs made of bark. 




(Sketched by a Dutch offi 



NEW YORK, DELAWARE, NEW JERSEY 



91 




People came from most of the countries of Europe. To buy 
furs for beads and sell them for a generous amount of gold was 
an easy way to make a fortune, and after making a fortune, the 
next tiling was to go back to Europe to spend it. The 
Company discussed the matter, and concluded that farm- 
ers who had been forbidden to deal in furs would be 
the best settlers. There was rich land all along the 
North River, but it paid so much better to trade in furs 
than to manage a farm that the Company knew they 
must make especially good offers to induce people to dutch flag 

remain farmers. They formed a plan that was entirely different 
from anything that had been attempted in 
America. 

Long before this time it had been the cus- 
tom in various countries of Europe for one Patroon < 
man to hold a large amount of land, and to ^^^ 
allow other men to use such parts of it as 
he chose. These men must work for him so 
many days every year, and they could not 
leave one man's land to work for some one 
else. This custom had gone out of use in 
Europe, but the Dutch Company thought it 
might be introduced into America. They 
offered to give sixteen miles of the Hudson 
River shore with an indefinite amount of land 
behind it to any member of the Company who 
would bring fifty settlers to America. 

The owner of this land was called a patroon, 
or protector. He must clear the land, build houses and barns, 
and provide cattle and tools. He was to receive as rent a part 
of each crop. The colonists were to be free from paying taxes 
for ten years, but they must agree to remain on his land for 




SETTLEMLN lb AUOT' 
THE HUDSON RIVKK 



92 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



How New 
Netherland 
was gov- 
erned 



that time. The patroon held a court of his own, and had the 
right to punish any one who broke his laws. Indeed, he could 
do just about what he chose except to trade in furs. The Com- 
pany would not give up that right to any one. 

In the New England settlements most of the settlers had the 
same ideas of what was good for the colony, and were ready to 
give up their own wishes for the gain of aU. It was not so in 
New Netherland. The Dutch had come to make money, and in 
their settlement, if a colonist was becoming rich, he did not care 
much what became of the colony. In Massachusetts, even after 
it became a royal province, every member of the church had a 
vote, but New Netherland was ruled by governors sent over by 
the Company. 

Governor Stuyvesant, the last of these governors, was the best 
of them, for though he meant to have 
his own way, he was honest and kept 
the colony in order. Just as Vir- 
ginia had demanded a House of Bur- 
gesses, so the people of New Nether- 
land Avished to elect a council of men 
to tell what their taxes should be, and 
to decide how the money should be 
spent. Stuyvesant finally yielded so 
far as to allow them to elect the 
coimcil, but the councilors had no 
power, for he would pound on the 
floor with his wooden leg and tell 
them what was to be done — and it always was done. 

Governor Stuyvesant had in New Amsterdam a great farm, or 

The Bowery bowery, as it was called in Dutch. The lane leading to it was 

Street ^ Bowery Lane, and even now the street that is where the lane 

used to be is called the Bowery. Before New Amsterdam was 




WALL STREET PALISADE FROM THE EAST 
RIVER 



NEW YORK, DELAWARE, NEW JERSEY 93 

thirty years old, a war broke out between England and Holland ; 
and lest the English should invade the Dutch city, Governor 
Stuyvesant built a stout wooden wall, twelve feet high, directly 
across the island. Where this waU ran is now caUed Wall Street. 
The Dutch had good reason to fear being driven away by the 
English. Holland said, " We were first in the North River." Dutch and 
England replied, " Yes, but an Englishman was captam of your ^i"f^|^to 

vessel; and what is more, John Cabot New Nether- 
brought an English ship to America ^" 
moie than a ccntuiy betoie you 




loiu a, l>uiuu inaiJ puuiished lu nwu; 



came." " True," retorted the Dutch, "" but if our captain was an 
Englishman, yours was an Italian. Moreover, it was your own 
Queen Elizabeth who said that discovery of a land is nothing ; it 
is colonizing that gives a right to the country. We have had men 
here ahnost ever since Hudson's voyage was made, and the land 
is ours." But the English said, " King James granted this land to 
the London and the Plymouth Companies before Hudson crossed 
the ocean. If Dutchmen come here to settle, we are willing ; but 
they are on our land, and they are subjects of our king," 

The matter was dropped for a time because the English king 
and his people did not get along very well together and were too Swedes in 
busy with their own quarrels to give much time to American ^ aware 
affairs. England left the Dutch in peace for a while, but trouble 
was arising from another direction, and they could not make 
butter and cheese and smoke their pipes in quiet very long. The 
king of Sweden had been eager to found a colony in America that 



94 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



should be open to all Protestants. He died before this could be 

done, but in 1638 a company of "strong, industrious people " sailed 

from Sweden to the Delaware River — ^or South River, as the 

Dutch called it. Up the wide, beautiful stream they went until 

they were where Wilmington now stands. There they built a 

fort and named it Fort Christiana in honor of the httle girl, 

twelve years old, who had become their queen. She 

N\as much interested in the colony, and was glad 

to have her father's plan carried out. This was 

the beginning of the settlement of Delaware. 

After a few years, a governor named Printz 
wah sent to rule the colony. He did not mean 
that any craft should sail up the Delaware 
rf River against liis will; and when a vesse) 
entered the stream, the sailors must anchor and 
go on for six leagues in small boats to ask if the 
governor would allow them to bring up the 
ship. If his permission was not asked, he would fire upon the 
vessel, no matter to what nation it belonged. 

This was very annoying to the Dutch, for they had a little 

settlement farther up the Delaware, opposite where Philadelphia 

now stands, and to be obliged to ask the permission of a Swede 

whenever they wished to sail up to their own people was rather 

hard. They said dolefully that the 

Swedish fort was " extremely well 

supplied with cannons and men." 

After a while the time came when 

The Dutch Sweden was too busy making war in 

Sweden ^^^ Europe to defend her colony on the Delaware. The hot-headed 

Governor Stuyvesant had borne about as much as he cared to 

bear, and Governor Printz was greatly surprised one morning 

to see seven Dutch ships come sailing up his river without ask- 




(diveii to tin 1u->t wlali {.iilboinii 
Net lit 1 land, on hei inaiiiage) 




DUTCH FLINTLOCK PISTOL 



NEW YORK, DELAWARE, NEW JERSEY 95 



ing his permission. There were more men on hoard, armed and 
ready to tight, than there were in all the little Swedish settle- 
ment, and Governor Printz had to surrender. So it was that the 
Dutch became masters not only of New Netherland, hut of New New Jersey 
Sweden. In 1617, only three years after they built their fort on ^^"'^'' 
Manhattan Island, they built one where Bergen stands, and this 
was the first settlement in New Jersey. 

So far, the Dutch had had matters their own way. They had 
taken as much land as they chose, 
and had conquered the Swedes 
who would not live under their 
rule, but now trouble was com- 
ing upon them. An Eng- 
lish fleet sailed into Mas- 
sachusetts Bay, and the 
Dutchmen of New Amster- 
dam were greatly alarmed, 
but Holland sent a mes- 
sage, " There is nothing to 
fear. They have only come to 
oblige Massachusetts to adnnt 
the Episcopal Church." There 
were some Dutch warships 
lying off New Amsterdam, but when this dispatch came. Gov- Trouble for 
ernor Stuyvesant allowed them to sail. The Dutch had made 
a treaty with the Iroquois, the chief tribe of Indians in that part 
of the country, but some other red men were making trouble, 
and the governor and most of his troops had gone up the Hudson 
to quiet them. One hot August day a messenger dashed into 
the camp. " The English ships ! " he cried, " They have left 
Boston, and they are coming to Manhattan ! " 

Governor Stuyvesant hurried to Manhattan, and the next day 







.^^^p^^a 



NLW \OhW, 



(The house at the head of the wharf was the first brick house 
built in the town) 



96 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



England 
claims New 
Amsterdam 



Nicolls's 
letter 



the men-of-war appeared. There were one thousand soldiers or 
board, and there were six times as many guns as Fort Amsterdam 
could show. Governor Winthrop came ashore and made it clear 
to Governor Stuyvesant that the land had been granted to the 
Massachusetts Bay Company, and must be surrendered. Stuy- 
vesant would not yield, and at last Wmthrop presented a letter 
from the English commander, Richard Nicolls, whom the king 
had appointed governor of the territory, and went back to the 
ship. This letter promised that the Dutch might plant as many 

colonies as they chose 
and have all the privi- 
leges of English colo- 
nists, if they would sur- 
render Manhattan. 

" Let us read it to the 
people," said the coun- 
cilors. 

" I won't," roared 
Governor Stuyvesant, 
thumping on the floor 
with his wooden leg ; 
and straightway he 
tore the letter into bits. 
The people heard 
what he had done, and 
UP NicoLL&'s LErrcK they demanded to heai 

the letter. One of the councilors put the pieces together and read 
it to them. 

" The West India Company has done little for us," said one. 
" Why should we lose our homes and our hves to hold the land 
for them ? " demanded another. 

"We cannot hold the land if we would," declared a third 




^11 'i \ L^VN 



NEW YORK, DELAWARE, NEW JERSEY 97 



" We have twenty guns and two hundred and fifty men ; they 
have one hundred and twenty guns and one thousand men." 

Still Stuyvesant would not yield. The ships sailed into the 
North River, and the governor marched up the road at the head New Yort 
of his men to prevent the troops from landing. The 
citizens begged him not to fire. Women and chil- 
dren crowded around him and pleaded with him not 
to brmg war upon them. He yielded, but he said, 
■' I 'd rather be carried to my grave." So it came 
about that New Amsterdam was no longer a Dutch 
toAvn. It lost even its name, for the English king 
gave the territory to his brother, the Duke of York, 
and in 1664 New Amsterdam became New York. 

Nicolls remained as governor. He was a just, kind- 
hearted man, always ready to please the people. When 
lie was obliged to go back to England, the New York- 
ers were as sorry as if tliey themselves had cliosen 
him for their governor. Honest, positive old Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant and this gentle, courteous Governor 
Nicolls became warm friends, Stuyvesant lived on 
liis " bowery " on the East River, and the man whom he would 
have fought to the death was one of his most welcome guests. 

Governor Nicolls was much pleased with the northern part of 
what is now New Jersey. He sent a colony there when he had Ne\y Jersej 
been in New York only a few montlis, but before the colonists aw|y ^" 
were fairly settled, he learned that the Duke of York had given 
away the land to two noblemen. Lord Berkeley and Sir George 
Carteret. " Hold on to your homes," said Governor Nicolls. " I 
am going to England, and I ^vill beg the duke not to give up the 
land." 

The visit was of no use, and one day in 1664 an English vessel 
appeared in the harbor. The colonists stood in a group on the 




A COMPANION OF 
GOVERNOK NICOLLi 



(Showing the costume 
of the period) 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Bhilip Car- river bank, not knowing whether they would be treated kindly oi 
driven harshly away from their settlement. A small boat was 
rowed to the landing, and a young man sprang ashore. Tradition 
says that he had a hoe on his shoulder. He mtroduced himself 
as Philip Carteret, a cousm of Sir George, and made a cordial 
little speech to the settlers, saying that he was glad to find them 

there, and he hoped they would 
stay. He told them how much 
land he would give them, and 
promised that every man 
might worship God as h(i 
thought right. 

The colonists liked the 
young man. They had built 
four " clapboarded houses," 
and, crowded as they w^re, 
room was made for Philip and 
his men. This is the way in 
which the town of EHzabeth 
was begun. The name was that of Sir George's wife. New Jer- 
sey's name came from the island of Jersey, of which Sir George 
Carteret had once been governor. 
Not many years passed before Lord Berkeley sold his share of 
The Quakers New Jersey to the Quakers. Some time afterwards they pur- 
Jersey chased the share of the Carterets also. In 1702 East and West 

Jersey were united and became a royal colony. 

SmiMARY. 

Henry Hudson, sailing for a Dutch company, discovered the Hudson River, 
New York was first settled by the Dutch fur traders, and was called New 

Amsterdam. Patroons received large estates along the Hudson. 
England claimed the land because of Cabot's voyage, seized it, and gave to 

both city and province the name New York. 




STUYVKSAiST'S BOWEKY HOUSE 



PENNSYLVANIA 



99 



Delaware was settled by the Swedes, and afterwards was seized in tnrn by 

tlie Dutch and the English. 
New Jersey was settled by the Dutch, then by colonists under Carteret and 

Berkeley, then by Quakers. Finally it became a royal colony. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Stuyvesant describes the surrender of New Amsterdam. 
A patroon tries to persuade a man to come to America. 
A talk between Governor Printz and some sailors who wished to go up the 
Delaware. 



XI 



PENNSYLVANIA AND MARYLAND 



PEisnsrsYLVAJsnA. 

Settlements had already been 
made in New England, New York, 
and Delaware when the boy was 
born who was to hold more land m 
America than any other man had 
ever received. His name was Wil- 
iam Penn, and he was the son of 
11 admJral of the British navy. 
When the boy grew older, he was 
very handsome. He was an excel- 
lent scholar, and spoke five or six 
languages. He was fond of out- 
of-door sports, rode well, danced 
well, was a good swordsman, and 
a favorite wherever he went. 
Admiral Penn was exceedingly proud of his brilliant son. He 

LOFC. 




WILLIAM PENN 
(When twenty-two years okll 



The boy Wil- 
liam Penn 



100 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



sent him to Oxford University, and made many plans for his 
career after he had graduated. By and by news 
came to the admiral that the young man had 
become a Quaker, and that he was getting into 
trouble at the University because he thought it 
was wrong to attend the church service and be- 
cause he persisted in saying thee and thou instead 
of you. The Quakers, or Friends, did not think 
it right to speak to one person as you^ since 
you is a plural pronoun, although by most peo- 
ple it was thought as impertinent to say thou 
to an older person as it would be to-day to 
call him by his first name. 

The admiral was angry and disappointed. 
A QUAKER* One thing that seemed especially shocking to 

''''''hK?etoen"^o\"y one "''" l^^m was hls sou's rcfusal to take off his hat. 




Penn will 
not remove 
his hat to 
the king 



Advanced 
ideas of the 
Quakers 



even to the king. The king himself was not at all annoyed. He 
thought this whim of young Penn's, as he called it, was very 
amusing, and when the handsome young man stood before him, 
hat on head, the kmg took off his own hat. " Friend Charles," 
asked the Quaker, " why dost thou take off thy hat ? " " Wher- 
ever I go," answered the king, with a sly twinkle in his eye, " it is 
the custom for only one man to wear a hat." WiUiam Penn liked 
a jest as well as any one, and he must have been amused at this 
speech, but he continued to wear his hat. 

In some important matters the Friends were wiser than the 
rest of the world; for instance, in England a man might be 
hanged for stealing a loaf of bread, but the Friends believed that 
it was far better to punish him in some other way than by taking 
his hfe. In those days most people thought that insane persona 
could be cured by beating and starving, but Penn believed in 

1 From a portrait of Nicholas Walu ia Watson's Annals of Philadelphia. 



PENNSYLVANIA 



101 



having hospitals for them and treating them kindly. He thonght 

no one should be imprisoned for debt ; and, so far as is known, 

he was the first man in the world to declare that criminals ought 

to have work provided for them when they were imprisoned, and 

not spend their time in idleness and in learning more of evil 

from the other prisoners. Another idea of his, which was then Penn's own 

almost unheard of, was that nations, instead of going to war when 

they disagreed, should let their rulers meet and act as a council 

to settle any dispute. It is probable that many who were opposed 

to the Quakers did not think so much, of the difference of belief 

in important affairs as of what seem to us very small matters, 

such as refusing to take off the hat, and saying thee and thou. 

There were Quakers in New Jersey, and for some time Penn 
thought of founding a settlement in 
America where his people could live in 
peace and not be fined or beaten or im- 
prisoned. Charles II. owed Admiral 
Penn a large sum of money, and when 
the admiral died, William Penn offered 
to accept instead of the money a tract 
of land in America. The king was glad 
enough to escape from paying the debt. 
He thought it very amusing that this 
young Quaker would take wild forest 
land instead of such a sum of money, 
and it may be that there was a touch of 
humor in the name which he gave it, 
" Pennsylvania," or " Penn's Woodland," 
though he declared that the name was ( iLii:i.i..s n 

given in honor of the admiral. More amusing still did it seem to 
the merry King Charles to send Quakers, who did not believe in 
fighting, off among the savages. 




102 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Philadelphii 
founded 



"We shall have no fighting," said Penn, "we shall pay the 
Indians for the land." 

" I thought the land was mine," said the king. " Did n't our 
ships discover it ? " 

" If some Indians should come over here and discover England, 
would the country be theirs ? " asked Penn. 

" Oh good-by, good-by," said the king ; " but see to it that you 
don't take to scalping." 

There were to be just laws in Penn's colony and rehgious free- 
dom. Ship after ship sailed up the Delaware, full of colonists ; 
three thousand came during the first year. Penn planned his 

city with wide, straight streets. 



'pen rN^ y l 









and gave them the names of 
forest trees. Some of these 
names have been changed, but 
there are still Chestnut, Wal- 
nut, Spruce, Pine, and others. 
The settlers at first lived not 
0)1 the river bank, but in it, for 
they dug into the bluff from the 
side and top, spread turf and 
branches over the cave for a 
roof, and were not at all un- 
comfortable. So it was that 
Philadelphia was begTin in 1682. 
The name means the "city of 
THE MIDDLE COLONIES brotlicrly love," and Penn in- 

tended that people of different beliefs should have an oppor- 
tunity to live there in peace. In a few weeks he asked the set- 
tlers to meet him, and together they made laws for the colony. 

Soon after Penn's arrival the famous treaty with the Indians 
was made. Penn feasted them, and they feasted him. They ran 



PENNSYLVANIA 



103 



and leaped to show what they coiild do. The governor watched Penn's 
a little while, then he showed what he could do. When they |[fe^5^ndia!!s 
saw that he could leap as far and run as fast as they, they were 
convinced that he was really a mighty man, and they 
gladly made a treaty with him. The treaty 
made by the Pilgrims with Massasoit was kept 
for more than fifty years, but this famous treaty 
of Penn's was faithfully observed for sixty years. 

The Quakers paid the red men for the land that they 
took, as the whites in New York and New England had 
done ; but the Quakers were especially fortunate in 
having around them, not fierce, warlike Indians hke 
those of the east, but tribes that had been completely 
subdued by the fierce Iroquois, made to pay tribute, 
and to call themselves cowards. Their conquerors 
were friendly to the whites, and were ready to swoop 
down upon the Indians of Pennsylvania if they harmed 
the Quakers.^ 

This was what gave Penn safety. But he had more 
than safety : he had the friendship of the red men, and this he 
won chiefly because he was one of the few white men who treated 
them not as inferiors, but as equals, and because he was careful 
to do by them as he would have liked them to do by him. Penn 
stayed two years in America. He lived at first in a smaU cottage, 
now in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, the bricks for which were 
brought from England. He was finally obliged to return to Eng- 
land, and visited his " Woodland " but once more. 

The city grew. Schools were opened when it was only one 
year old, and — a new thing in those days — they were for girls Education 
as well as boys. Children could be taught to read for four shil- g^jajfrs and 
lings a term, and for eight shillings they could learn reading, Puritans 
1 Fiske's Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. 




PENN'S AUTOGRAPH 
AND SEAL 



104 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Growth of 
the city 



writing-, iind arithmetic. Tlie Quaker belief in regard to educa- 
tion was quite different from tliat of the Puritans. Both were 
eager to understand the Bible aright. The Puritans thought that 
the more of a student a man was, the better chance he would 

have of knowing just 
what every verse in 
the Bible meant. That 
is why the Puritans 
were so anxious to 
found a college. The 
Quakers thought that 
if one simply learned 
to read, God would put 
into his heart the mean- 
ing of what was said in 
the Bible. That is why 
they did not think it was necessary to have a college, although 
they wished their children to have a common school education. 

Philadelphia grew rapidly and soon became the largest city in 
the colonies, retaining that distinction for many years. Two years 
after Penn's arrival the first printing press in the middle colonies 
was established in Philadelphia. There, too, was published the 
first daily paper in the United States. 




li^NN > BRICK C0T1\( I 
(Formerly standing on the west side of Letitia Stieet) 



English per- 
secution of 
Roman 
Catholics 



MARYLAND. 

Maryland is a kind of link between the northern colonies and 
those farther south. It was first settled in 1634, the very year in 
which Roger Williams was having so hard a time in Massachu- 
setts. The Roman Catholics in England were meeting even 
greater troubles than his. If they refused to attend the Episcopal 
Church, they were fined or imprisoned, or even tortured. Not a 
word could they say about making the laws of the land, and they 



MARYLAND 



105 



could not even send their children away to school in Roman 
Catholic comitries. The queen was a Roman Catholic, but, 
strangely enough, this fact only made life m England harder for 
the members of her church. In order to marry her, Charles had 
promised that the laws against those of her faith should not be 
carried out. He had no power to bring this to pass, and while 
the Roman Catholics were indignant that he did not succeed, the 
Protestants were angry that he even made an attempt, and they 
watched closely to make sure that the laws were enforced. 

In England there was a wise, clear-sighted nobleman called Lord Balti- 
Lord Baltimore. He had been a member of Parliament, and he ^coLnv "^ 
was a friend of King Charles. Tliis nobleman had become a Ro- 
man Catholic, and just as the Puritans wished to 
foimd a colony where they could be free to worship 
as they would, so Lord Baltimore wished to found one 
where Roman Catholics could have their church. He 
asked the king for some land north of Virginia, 
Charles was more than ready to grant the request. 
This gift would please the Roman Catholics, 
the Protestants would not object to their op- 
ponents leaving the country, and the only ones 
displeased would be the colonists in Virginia, 
^vho were too far away to make any trouble. 

Lord Baltimore could appoint his own judges, 
have his own form of worship, and make very 
nearly what laws he chose. The only claim that 
King Charles made upon the proprietor was that 
one fifth of all gold and silver mined should be- 
long to the crown, and that two Indian arrows should be pre- The inde- 




sented to him every year, to show that the land was under the 
English rule. The queen's name was Henrietta Maria, and in 
her honor the tract was to be called Maryland. 



pendence of 
Maryland 



106 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



St Alary 's is 
founded 



Religious 
freedom 



Just as the papers for tliis grant were to be made out, Lord 
Baltimore died, but his son went on with the plan, and carried 
out his father's ideas. Soon three hundred colonists went to 
Maryland. A few were rich, and all were well supplied with 
what would be needed in a new country. Some were Roman 
Catholics, but many were Protestants, for it was known that men 
were to attend whatever church they chose. The emigrants came 
to land on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay. The ship was 
the largest that the Indians had ever seen, and they sent messen- 
gers about to say, " A canoe as large as an island has brought as 
many men as there are trees in the woods." " Where did a tree 
grow that was large enough to make it of ? " they asked, for they 
thought it was made of a single trunk like a dug-out. For "axes, 
hatchets, hoes, and some yards of cloth," the chief sold the whites 
a piece of land at the mouth of the Potomac, and there in 1634 
was founded Saint Mary's, the first settlement in Maryland. 
Some wigwams were on this land, and in 
one of these was held the first Roman Cath- 
olic service in that part of the world. This 
Indian hut is sometimes spoken of as the 
" Wigwam Church." 

The governor called the colonists to a 
meeting, and together they made laws for 
the settlement. The most famous one of these laws declared 
that no one who believed in Jesus Christ should be interfered 
with in his worship. Rhode Island was not founded till two 
years later, so such liberality was something entirely new in 
America, and it was almost unlmown in Europe. Roman Catho- 
lics came to the colony, of course, and Quakers came ; and finally 
some Puritans came who had not been happy in Virginia, and 
they founded Annapolis. 

The great business of Maryland Avas raising tobacco. This 




A BALTIMORE SIXPENCE 
(Issued by Lord Baltimore in 1662) 



MARYLAND 



107 




DOUGHOUEGAN MANOR IN MAKYLAND 



work paid so well that people did little else ; and while the New Why Mary. 
Engianders were spinning and weaving and sawing and whittling, manufac- 
the people of Maryland were rolling their hogsheads of tobacco tures 
to the wharves, and sending them to England to buy whatever 
they needed to wear and to use m their houses. With whole 
forests at hand, the Marylanders made nothing for themselves, 
but sent the wood to England to be manufactured into tables, 
stools, bowls, and brooms, and brought back to them. 

People living on large plantations cannot have their houses 
near together, and this is the chief reason why there were so few Reason for 
towns in Maryland even after many settlers had come. Each ^q^,^^ 
plantation, however, was like a little town in itself. There were 
wide fields of tobacco all around, cabins for the workmen, a 
chapel, storehouses, and in the centre of all the great, comfortable 
house of the o^vner of the plantation. In these rather lonely 
places, the people at the " great house " were always glad to wel- 
come guests. The homes of the planters " are free for all to come 
and go," said one who knew them well. 



108 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Puritan re- 
bellion 



Changes of 
government 



In a short time there were troubles in Maryland, which arose 
chiefly because the Virginians did not wish to have a cobny so 
near. Some years later a rebelUon broke out among the Puritans 
against the governor. They were especially ungrateful because, 
as was said. Lord Baltimore had given them the same rights that 
he had given to the people of his own church. The Puritans 
were in power in England, and the man who was then Lord Balti- 
more was declared to have no claim upon Maryland. 

A few years later his rights were restored, and for thirty years 
every man went to church where he pleased. Then the king 
took the government into his own hands, and the Roman Catho- 
lics were obliged to pay forty pounds of tobacco apiece every year 
to help support the Episcopal Church. Fmally a Protestant de- 
scendant of the founder was appointed governor, and his family 
held the province until the Revolution. 



SUMMARY. 

The Quaker, William Penn, obtained a grant of land in America and 
founded Philadelphia. People of all kinds of belief came to enjoy 
religious freedom. The city soon became the largest in the colonies. 

Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore as a place of refuge for Roman 
Catholics who were persecuted in England. 

Religious freedom was given to all who chose to come. 

Maryland had few manufactures because tobacco-raising paid so well that 
people bought whatever was needed, and few towns because each man 
wished to have a large plantation for raising tobacco. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A Quaker boy describes his cave in the banks of the Delaware. 
Penn tells the Indians of his wish to be on good terms with them. 
One Indian tells another about the coming of the great ship. 



NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA 



1C9 



XII 



THE CAROLINAS AND GEORGIA 



NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA. 

The father of Charles II. treated Ms people so badly that finally 
he was tried and put to death. For eleven years there was no The grant of 
king in England, and then Charles II. was set upon the throne. ^^^^ ^""^ '' 



N <j -, 



I ^ V c 

^ 






c 

V 



The men who had helped him 
to secure his father's crown 
expected to be rewarded, but 
Charles preferred to spend his 
money in amusing himself. The 
cheapest thing to do was to give 
them some land in America, and 
this he did. To a company of 
eight he gave the land between 
Virginia and Saint Augustine. 
Like the other grants, this terri- 
tory was to extend to the west 
as far as the Pacific. 

Carolina was not all wilder- mai' oi nn; ( vkolisas and oiioRGiA 
ness, for a few farmers had come from Virginia and settled near Albemarle 
Albemarle Soimd, not far from Roanoke Island, where Raleigh 
had tried to begin his " second home " for the English nation. In 
1663 the Company gave the little group of houses the name of 
Albemarle. This was the first permanent settlement in North 
Carolina. 

The first settlement in South CaroUna was made in 1670, near 



110 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Charleston 



The Hugue- 
nots 



The Grand 
Model 



where Charleston now stands, by English emigrants whom the 
Company sent over. Just as Jamestown had been named in 
honor of Kmg James, so this settlement was named in honor of 
King Charles II. 

South Carolina was especially fortunate in the Huguenot, or 
French Protestant, emigrants who came to the new colony in the 
early days. The king of France declared that they should not 
have a church of their own in France, and that if they tried to 
emigrate, they should be hanged. Those who came to America 
had to steal away by night and abandon their homes and other 
property, but when they reached the New World, every colony 
had a Aveleome for them. Massachusetts gladly gave them land 
and money. They were valuable colonists, for they understood 
various kinds of manufactures, and, more than that, they were 
brave, upright, intelligent people, a prize for any nation. 

In England a learned man named John Locke wrote a body 

of laws for Carolina, 
There were laws for 
everytlung that could 
])e thought of from the 
punishment of crimes 
to the oversight of chil- 
dren's games. There was 
to be a certain number 
of noblemen, each own- 
ing a certain amount of 
land. There were also 
to be tenants, who rented land, but could never buy it. They 
must do whatever the nobleman bade, and they must not leave 
his land without permission. The Company were so delighted 
with this body of laws that they called it the " Grand Model," and 
declared that it would stand forever. In reality, it never stood 




ENTRANCE TO ( I 



GEORGIA 



111 



at all, for the settlers refused to be ruled in any such fashion, and 
insisted upon buying land and making laws for themselves. 
North Carolina had vast forests of pines, and the chief occupa- 
tion of the colonists was cutting timber and making tar The chief 
and turpentine. South Carolina had great tracts of '" "^ ^^^^ 
swampy land, and as soon as it was found that rice 
would grow on it, the raising of rice became the prmci- 
pal work. Long before the Revolutionary War, it was 
discovered that mdigo would flourish in South Carolina, 
and that paid so well that indigo raising then became 
the leading indastry. It was not easy for white people 
to work in the swamps, and negro slaves Avere brought 
KicE from Africa. The occupations of the two parts of Caro- 
lina were so unlike and the first settlements 'so far apart, that 
what one portion of the country wanted was often quite diti'erent 
from what the other required. The 
result of this was that the territory 
was finally divided into two parts, 
North and South Carolina. 




Division of 
the Caroli- 
nas 



GEORGIA. 

There used to be a law in England 
that men who could not pay their 
debts should be put into prison. In 
prison they must stay unless some 
one paid for them, for there they had 
no way of earning money. Indeed, 
they had little food unless their 
friends gave it to them or they could 
beg it from those who passed by. 
Many of these " poor debtors " were honest men who had run in 
debt because of sickness. Some were even weU educated. 




Poor debtors 



GENERAL JAMES OGLETHORPE 
(From a print in the British Museum) 



112 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Why he 
chose Geor- 
gia 



The prisons of Engiand were in a wretched condition, and Par 
Oglethorpe hament appointed General James Ogletliorpe to visit them and 
plans to help j.gport what reforms ought to be made. General Oglethorpe was 
a kind-hearted man, and after he had seen the sufferings of these 
people, he could not rest until he had planned some way to relieve 
them. This is what he planned. He would pay their debts, set 
them free, and then carry them and their families to America, and 
give them a chance to try again. 

Many rich men helped, the English government helped, and it 
was only a year before a ship set sail with more than one hundred 
liberated prisoners and their famihes on board as emigrants. They 
were to form a settlement between Charleston and Saint Augus- 
tine, for Oglethorpe was a good general as well as a kind, gener- 
ous man, and he knew that Charleston would welcome a strong 
settlement to the south as a prott-etion against the Spaniards, 

and that the two colo- 
nies could stand more 
.5 firmly together than 
either alone. The tract 
. of land given to him 

' " in trust for the poor " 
was called Georgia, for 
then King George II. 
was on the throne. 

The first settlement 
was made at Savannah 
in 1733. Not many 
years before tliis time, 
the Spaniards of Florida had aroused the Indians to attack South 
Carolina, and that colony was delighted to have these new neigh- 
bors and allies. She gave them cattle, goats, hogs, and rice, besides 
sending some negroes with them to help build the houses. South 




J.'SSi^ 



The settle- 
ment of 
Georgia 



GEORGIA 113 

Carolina was not disappointed in the help that she expected to 
receive from the new colony, for General Oglethorpe led an expe- 
dition against the Spaniards, and after that there was no trouble 
from them. 

Oglethorpe had expected to be able to make wine and olive oil, Silk-raising 
and to produce large quantities of silk, for mulberry-trees, 
on whose leaves the silkworms feed, grew wild in Georgia. 
When the colony was two years old, the founder made 
a visit to England, and carried with him eight pounds 
of Georgia silk, wliicli was made into a dress for 
the queen. Silk-raising was not a success, however, 
one reason being that the raising of rice and indigo 
paid much better. 

Oglethorpe and his friends were to make the 
laws for the colonies for twenty-one years ; but 
after a little while the settlers were not contented 
to be ruled by others. There were two reasons why 
they felt that they had a right to complain. One was 
that no rum could be brought into the colony, and the 
second was that slavery was not allowed. The colonists 
said that men needed rum in that climate, and that besides, 
they ought to have it to sell to the West Indies. The branch of olive 
climate, it was maintained, required the use of negroes, for the 
settlers said they must have workmen who could endure the heat 
better than white men. • 

The founder and his friends finally granted their requests. 
Twenty years after the colony was founded, the province was Georgia is 
given up to the king, and until the Revolution it was ruled by a f^e^king *° 
governor whom he appointed. Georgia was the last of the thirteen 
English colonies that united, only a century and a half after the 
first one was fomided, to free themselves from Great Britain. 




^ 



114 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

SUMMARY. 

The Carolinas were granted to several men as a reward for serving the 
king. Among their most valuable colonists were the Huguenots. 

The chief industry in the northern part was the manufacture of tar and 
turpentine ; in the southern, the raising of rice and indigo. The wants 
of the two colonies were so unlike that the province was finally di- 
vided. 

General Oglethorpe founded Georgia as a home for " poor debtors." 

The settlers were not satisfied with the government of the colony, and at 
last it was given up to the king. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

General Oglethorpe tells Parliament about the " poor debtors." 
One of the prisoners writes his wife about Oglethorpe's offer. 



XIII 
THE FRENCH EXPLORATIONS IN AMERICA 

U» ^^ *P '^ ^ ^"-^^^ years before Jamesto^vll was settled, 
./■^ ' ' T: _f: there was in France a brave young sailor who 
r " .• <" . [ -■■ had become a soldier for the time, and was 

helping to fight some of the French king's 
liattles. His name* was Champlain, and he 



.*' 



would have been much surprised if any one 
had told him that some day a lake in America 
would be named after him. 

When the fighting was over, he asked the 
king's permission to go to America to search 
for the Northwest Passage. He explored 
the Saint La^^'rence, and on its north shore he noted a rocky pro- 




FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 



115 



montory. " That is the very place for a town," he thought. " The The found- 
river is narrow here, and a fort with a few men could keep any q^ ?^ ^ 
number of ships from coming up the stream." In 1608 he founded 
a colony on that very spot, and named it Quebec from the Indian 
word quebec^ a narrow place. 

The Iroquois, the fiercest and most savage of all the Indian 
tribes, hved in what is now the State of New York, and one day 
the friendly Indians Avho were north of the Saint Lawrence came 
to Champlain to beg for his aid against these Iroquois, who were 
their deadly foes. Champlain agreed to help them. The white 
men and the red men 
feasted and smoked and 
made speeches. Then 
they paddled up the 
river and into Lake 
Champlain. If they had 
been one month later 
and had gone a little 
farther south, they 
might have met Henry 
Hudson and his Dutch- 
men sailing up the Hud- 
son. All the men that they thought of meeting were the Iroquois, Champlain 
and soon the Iroquois came. Champlain's guns won the day, and JJjluo^s 
there was no limit to the devotion of the Indians. To show their 
affection and gratitude, they gave him the bleeding head of one 
of their enemies and asked him to present it to his sovereign. 
This little battle between a few red men in the woods with some 
white men helping one side was an important event in American 
history, for ever after this the Iroquois hated the French and 
were ready to help the English. That is why the French did 
not venture to found any colonies in New York, although they 




A JESUIT EXPLOEER 



116 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Jesuits 



explored to the westward, up the Saint Lawrence and about the 
Great Lakes. They claimed all the land that is drained by the 
river, and called it New France. 

The first explorers were Roman Catholic priests called Jesuits. 
Champlain said that he would rather convert an Indian than 
found an empire, and this was the spirit of these priests. Among 
the hostile Indians they suffered fearful tortures. They were 
beaten, they were burned, their fingers were cut off with shells 
joint by joint, and they were put to death in all the agonizing 
ways that could be . invented. StUl, even after the Dutch had 
ransomed one and sent him home, he made his way back again to 
preach to his tormentors. One Jesuit, when pursued by Iroquois, 
might easily have made his escape, but hastened back to terrible 
sufferings because he remembered that some of his Indian con- 
verts had not yet been baptized. In all the liistory of America, 
there are no heroes more brave, more earnest, and 
more unselfish than these black-robed missionaries 
of the wilderness. 

Another class of people who did much to bring the 

French and the Indians together were the coureurs de bois, 

or forest rangers. The king's officers demanded so much 

of the profit on furs that many young men went into the 

^vilderness and traded without the royal permission. 

Whenever one was caught, he was severely punished ; 

therefore, they went farther and farther away from the 

settlements. Often they married Indian women. 

?^ Nearly all the English looked down upon the In- 

A couitEUK DE BOIS dlaus, but the French treated them as equals, and 

could go among them in safety far from any settlement of whites. 

After a while the French heard that beyond their forts and 

missions there was a great river which the Indians called the 

Mississippi, or "father of waters." Marquette, a Jesuit priest. 




FRENCH EXPLORATIONS 



117 



was eager to go down this stream to preach to new tribes of Marquette 

Indians, and Joliet, a fur-trader, was ready to go with him. The down^the ^° 

friendly Indians begged them not to go. They said that the Mississippi 

distant tribes were fierce and cruel, and that the river was full 

of "monsters that devour both men and canoes." 

Nevertheless, the priest and the explorer and five of 

their friends floated down the Wisconsin and into 

the Mississippi. The Indians met them kindly, and 

one tribe, the Illinois, begged that the white men 

would come back and live among them. They went 

below the mouth of the Arkansas, far enough to be 

almost sure that the great river did not flow into 

the Gulf of California, as had been thought, and 

then they paddled their way back up the Mississippi. 

Marquette was exliausted by the hard journey, but 
as soon as he was strong enough he went to visit 
the Illinois. He preached to them and founded a 
mission. On his way back to the Great Lakes, he 
died on the bank of the river that is named for him. 

To find where the Mississippi emptied was the 
work of La Salle, another brave French explorer. 
Nothing could make this resolute man falter. He 
built a sailing vessel; it was wrecked. A French 
ship bringing him money was lost. He built a fort ; 
the garrison revolted. He made friends of the Illinois ; but when La Salle 
he came to their village a second time, it had been burned, and mouth of the 
the heads of his Indian allies were put up on poles. Three times Mississippi 
he started on his expedition ; twice he failed. The third time, m 
the bitterly cold winter of 1682, he came to the Mississippi. It 
was full of floating ice, but the dauntless man never thought of 
giving up the voyage. Down the stream he made his way. At 
the mouth of the river he set up a great wooden cross, on which 




JIAKQUETTE 
( From the statue in the 
Capitol at Washington i 



118 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Louisiana 



'^^ 



Death of 
La Salle 



he nailed the arms of France, and took possession in the name of 
Kmg Louis XIV. of all the land drained by the Mississippi and 

its branches. In honor of the 
king, he named the territory 
Louisiana. 

He knew that it was of little 
use to claim the land unless he 
planted colonies and built forts. 
The king gave him four ships 
that he might found a colony at 
the mouth of the Mississippi, but 
the pilot made a mistake and sailed to the coast of Texas. There 
they built a fort, but many of the men died and the rest quar- 
reled. Finally, La Salle set out for Canada to find help. On the 
way he was shot by one of his own men. So died one of the 
bravest and most resolute of all the explorers of the New World. 




rTLEMENT AT Till) MOUTH OB' THE 

Mississirri in iru; 



SUMMARY. 

Champlain explored the Saint Lawrence and founded Quebec ; therefore 

France claimed Canada. 
He sided with the Canadian Indians against the Iroquois ; and, because of 

their enmity, although the French planted colonies to the west, they 

founded none in New York. 
Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle explored the Mississippi ; therefore France 

claimed the land drained by that river. She named it Louisiana. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A Jesuit tells his friends about his life in America. 
An Indian tells Marquette about the Mississippi. 
La Salle describes his journey down the Mississippi. 



THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH 



19 



XIV 
THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH 



A FEW years after all the colonies except Georgia had been 
founded, war broke out between England and France. Both na- Who should 
tions were beginning to see that it was worth while to hold land 
in America, and that to destroy one of the enemy's settlements 
counted for more than to capture one of the enemy's warships. 



rule in 
America 



,^, - 








i 


Gulf of f/o 

] A St Lawrence / 


\ 


j 


^. 


(^ 


i"/ , 


i ■' Louisburg 


t 




O 

A 

' ) 
] 

/ 1 




\ 


Scale of Miles- 


60 100 


150 200 250 11 



FKENCII FRONTIER IN THE NORTH 

This is why there was fighting between the French and English 
colonies. 

In tliis struggle the colonies that could be most easily reached 
from Canada suffered most. One of the first to be attacked was Schenectady 
Schenectady in New York. The settlers had so little thought of ^^^^"^^^^ 
danger that m jest they had put up two snow men at the gates for 



120 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Hannah 

Dustan's 

adventures 



Burning of 
Deerfield 



sentinels. In the night, through the storm and the darkness, the 
French and Indians went silently past the watchmen of snow. 
Not a sound was heard. Suddenly came the terrible warwhoop, 
and in two hours men, women, and children were slain or carried 
away as prisoners. 
Another raid was made u]jon a few farmliouses near Haver- 
hill, Massachusetts. A sick wo- 
man named Hannah Duston 
was dragged away with her 
nurse. With the Indians was 
a boy captured at Worcester 
long before who had learned 
to speak their language. " They 
said that by and by we should 
have to run the gauntlet," 
whispered the boy to Mrs. 
Duston. " Running the gaunt- 
let" meant running between 
two rows of men, each man 
striking at the captive as he 
THE CAPTURE OF HANNAH DUSTON passed. " Flud out wlicrc to 
strike if one would kill at a blow," whispered Mrs. Duston. That 
night they camped on an island in the Merrimack just above Con- 
cord, New Hampshire. The two women and the boy each took 
a tomahawk, and, gliding silently from one sleeping Indian to 
another, struck the fatal blow. With ten Indian scalps to prove 
the deed, they made their way back to their friends.* 

A few years later an attack was made upon Deerfield, Massa- 
chusetts. It was burned and a large number of captives taken 
on the long march to Canada. Many of them died on the way, or 
were killed by the savages because they could not travel over the 
snow and ice as fast as the others. One little Deerfield girl finally 
1 Art/i anil Jhsolces of the Prortnce of Mass. Bay, Vol. VII, p. 153. 




THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH 



121 



married an Indian. Years afterwards, she and her brave and 
their children made several visits to her old home. One Sunday 
her relatives persuaded her to put on a gown and bonnet and go 
to church ; but as soon as she came back, she tossed them off and 
went back to her Indian blanket and her Indian wigwam. 

After a time of peace, word came across the ocean that France 
and England were at war again. The governor of Louisburg, a New Eng- 
fortress on Cape Breton Island, heard the news first, and before ^^^^ a^gainst 
Boston knew that war had been declared, he burned a little Eng- Louisburg 
lish fishing village. The New Englanders were indignant, and in 
their wrath they determined to capture Louisburg. 

A skilled commander would have hesitated, for Louisburg was 




LOUISBURG FROM THE NORTHEAST 
(On the right Is the Royal Battery, the first French outpost to he captiired) 

the strongest fortress in North America ; but this scheme had " a 
lawyer for contriver, a merchant for general, and farmers, fisher- 
men, and mechanics for soldiers." No one in New England knew 
anything about besieging such a fort, and in all good faith the 
wildest methods were proposed. Almost as an afterthought, some 
English vessels were asked to accompany the expedition to pre- 
vent French ships from coming to the aid of the fortress. The 



122 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



i^ouisburg 
taken 



? I 



New Englanders landed. The cannon must be dragged two niiles. 
The men were up to their knees in mud, and the cannon sank 
out of sight. Tlierc were few tents, and not enough blankets to 
go around. Shoes gave out, clothes were in tatters, the scaling 
ladders were too short, two thousand man were sick ; and before 
the troops were the stone walls of the fortress, thirty feet high. 
Louisburg was captured, but even the colonists themselves who 
afterwards went within the walls wondered how the deed had 
been done. It was partly because the French commander was 
not as bold or as wise as he should have been, and did not 
make the proper preparations ; and partly because, while 
the besiegers knew notliing of the usual way of attack- 
ing a fort, they had had a hard training in finding out how 
to do things for themselves, and they made their assaults in 
original fashions that were a continual surprise to the French. 

f" Panic seized upon us," wrote a Frenchman who was at Louis- 
burg ; and he added mournfully, " These New Englanders 
CROSS are a singular people." All the fighting on land was done 

'^tmrg'^ndMw'in' by tlic coloulsts without otlicr aid than the instructions of 
toaryr^'"^ ' thrcc Or four gunners whom they borrowed from the fleet 
to show these daring soldiers how to use the cannon ; yet, if the 
English ships had not kept the harbor clear of vessels coming to 
help the French, and if they had not captured one with a supply 
of powder just as that of the besiegers was failing, Louisburg could 
not have been taken. 

When the terms of peace were arranged, England gave up 
Louisburg to France. This was done that England might gain 
some land in Hindustan, but the New Englanders were indignant, 
for they felt as if their great victory had gone for nothing. 

The question, " Who shall rule in America ? " was not yet set- 
tled, however. Before this, France and England had quarreled 
about matters in Europe, but trouble now arose about matters 



Louisburg 
returned to 
France 



THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH 123 

in America. France claimed the land drained by all the rivers The French 
that she explored. " The French king might as well claim all i^^^ ^ ^ 
the lands that drink French brandy," declared an Enghshman ; 
but France went on building forts and claiming land. The Eng- 
lish were not especially interested in the Mississippi, but when the 
French claimed the Ohio, they were aroused. Some Virginians 
and Londoners formed the Ohio Company and planned to make 
settlements on the river. The French began at once to build fortf; 
down the Alles-bauv. 

At length Governor Dinwiddle of Virginia decided to send a 
letter to warn them that they were trespassing. A young man of A youthful 
twenty-one years was asked to carry the letter, and he set off on a "^^^^^"S^r 
dangerous journey of nearly one thousand miles. It was winter, 
and the path was hidden by the deep snow. The young envoy 
would not wait for his party, but with one companion he went 
straight through the woods, finding his way by the compass. They 
crossed the creeks by felling trees for bridges. The Alleghany 
was full of floating ice, and they made a raft. In the middle of 
the stream the messenger was jerked into the water. He was 
fired at by an Indian not fifteen paces away, but at last he de- 
livered his letter and came safely home again. His friends were 
very proud of him, and they would have been still more proud if 
they had known Avhat he would do for his country a few years 
later, for the young man's name was George Washington. 

The only answer the French made was that the letter should be 
forwarded to Marquis Duquesne, the governor of Canada. Then The answei 
Governor Dinmddie sent Washington to build a fort where Pitts- p^J|^ch^ 
burg now stands. It was hardly begun when the French fell 
upon the party, completed the fort themselves, and named it Fort 
Duquesne. Washington built a small fort farther south, but 
when the French came upon him, he had to surrender and march 
back to Virginia. 



124 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The next year the English sent over General Braddock to take 
General command. " I shall capture Fort Duquesne in three or four days, 

and then march on to Niagara," 



Braddock 
takes com 
mand 



-w^ 



/ ,> 



said he. The Indians are 
skillful in laying snares," mod- 
estly suggested a wise colonist 
of whom we shall hear more, 
for his name was Benjamin 
Franklin. "Very likely they 
are troublesome to your un- 
trained soldiers," said Brad- 
dock a little haughtily, " but 
the king's Regulars wall have 
no difficulty." Wasliington 
tried to make him see that it 
would not do to draw up his 
men in Imes in plain sight 
when fighting with Indians, 
but Braddock accepted no ad- 
vice, and wrote home that the 
American troops were cow- 
ardly. 
Not far from Fort Duquesne there was a sudden attack. Brad- 
H is defeat at dock was bravery itself, and the English soldiers would have 
stood like a wall against an enemy whom they could see, but 
hardly a foe was in sight. The deadly shots came from behind 
trees and rocks, and the soldiers had no idea where to fire. They 
were panic-stricken, and ran "like sheep pursued by dogs," 
Washington wrote home to his mother. He added, " I had four 
buUets through my coat, and two horses shot under me." Then 
he signed liimself in the formal fashion of those days, " I am, 
honored Madam, your most dutiful son, George Washington." 




REGIUN ABUUT FOliT IJUQUE.S>E 



Fort Du- 
quesne 



THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH 125 



Only the skill of the young Virgmian saved any part of the 
army. Braddock was slain, and Washington buried him secretly 
at night, lest his grave should be insulted. The Indians strutted 
about the battlefield, wearing the laced hats and scarlet uniforms 
of the English officers. 

One of the saddest events of the war occurred in Acadia, or 
Nova Scotia. Nearly all the settlers there were French, and they Exile of the 
claimed to be " neutrals," that is, persons who would favor neither Acadians 
party. The Engfish believed that they were aiding the French, 
and thought that if they were \ allowed to remain, Eng- 
land would lose Nova Scotia. 
Suddenly the English troops 
swept down upon the Aca- 
dians, carried six thousand of 
them away, and scattered 
them among the English colo- 
nies along the coast. In the 
confusion, husbands were 
parted from their wives, and 
mothers from their children. 
There is a tradition that a 
young maiden was separated 
from her betrothed, and wan- 
dered for many years in 
search of him. It is upon 
this story that Longfellow 
founded his " Evangehne." 
The exiles buried many of 

their possessions, hoping to return. Some of these things have 
been found, and people have not yet given up digging in search 
of the chapel bell of Port Royal. 

Those who came to Philadelphia Avere m great need, until a 




EXPULSIOK OF THE ACADIANS 



126 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Aca- 
dians in 
Philadelphi 



Quebec 



kind Quaker raised funds to build a row of little wooden houses 
for them, and to provide a teacher for their children. There 
was a strange fear of these simple, harmless people, and a young 
Philadelphia girl wrote that she was frightened because she had 
to go by the houses of the " French Neutrals " at twilight. This 
carrying people from their homes was not a new thing, and 




THE FOKTKESS OF QUEBEC AS IT IS TO-DAY 

strangely enough, it is just what the French king had proposed 
to do some years earlier if he had captured New York. 

The English had won victories, but the one thing that would 
end the French rule in America was the capture of Quebec. 
Quebec was built on a great mass of rock that jutted out mto the 
Saint Lawrence. It was one of the strongest cities m the world, 
and it was commanded by General Montcalm, a brave and suc- 
cessful French soldier. The English were commanded by General 
Wolfe, a young man who had won glory in previous fighting. 

All summer Wolfe tried one plan after another to take the city, 
but in vain. Autumn came, and he planned a final attempt. He 
sent part of the vessels with a few men below the town to pre- 
tend to be getting ready for an assault, while the other ships with 



THE STRUGGLE WITH THE FRENCH 127 

most of the men sailed far up above the town. Montcalm was 

below, and one of his officers above, each expecting an attack. 

When night came, Wolfe and his men floated dowTi stream in 

the deep shadow of the high bank. It was dark, but the stars were Capture of 

out. Wolfe repeated softly his favorite poem, Gray's " Elegy." the^Enelish 

" I should rather have written those lines," said he, " than to take 

Quebec." They came near the shore. " Who is there ? " called 

the sentinel. " Provision boats," was the answer. " Keep still, 

the English will hear ! " Provision boats were expected, and the 

sentinel asked no more questions. 

About a mile above Quebec was a high plateau called the 
Plains of Abraham from a pilot who lived there in the early days. 
Wolfe had seen with his glass far across the river a rough 
path up the almost perpendicular cliff, and he believed that 
his men could climb it. Montcalm, too, had noticed tliis 
path, but he said, " They have not wings, and one hundred 
men posted there could stop their whole army." So they 
could, but the one in charge was careless, and while Mont- 
calm below the town and Ms officer above the town were 
each expecting an attack, Wolfe and his men were climbing 
up the steep cliff. 

In the morning Montcalm found an English army 
drawn up in line on the Plains. There was a fierce 
battle. Both commanders were mortally wounded. Wolfe 
heard his men crying, " They run ! See them run ! " " Who 
run?" he asked, and when he knew it was the French, 
he said, " Now I shall die in peace." Montcalm was 
carried to a little house in the town. " Thank God," 
said he, " that I shall not live to see the surrender of 

^ , .. ESGLIsn SOLDIER OF 

Quebec. wolfe's time 

This victory in 1759 ended in America the war which lasted in 
Europe till 1763. France gave up to England, Canada, and all 




128 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



English rule 
established 
in America 




DEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE 
(From the painting by Benjamin West) 

the land that the French had clahned east of the Mississippi. 
During the war, England had captured Cuba and the Pliilippmes 
from Spain, for Spain was helping France. Now England gave 
the islands back and took Florida in exchange. To pay Spain for 
this loss, France had to give her New Orleans and all the land 
between the Mississippi and the Kocky Mountains. The question 
was settled once for all that England would rule in America. 



SUMMARY. 

For nearly seventy-five years there were periods of fighting with the French 

to see who should rule in America. 
The latter part of this struggle, brought on by the attempts of the French 

to seize the Ohio valley, was called the French and Indian War. 



TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 



129 



The capture of Quebec gave England the control in America. 
After the war, Engianu held Canada and all land east of the Mississippi. 
Spain held the land between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A New England soldier writes home from Louisburg. 
Washington's companion tells about the journey to the Allegliany. 
An Acadian girl describes the caiTying away of her people. 



XV 

THE TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 

America in the eighteenth century was a very different conntry 
from what it is to-day. In the first place, there were probably Population 
not so many mhabitants m 



all the English colonies as 
there are now in Xew York 
and Philadelphia, and of 
these half a milUon were 
negro slaves. 

Slaves were held in aU the 
colonies. Indeed, England 
was makmg so much money 
in the slave trade that she 
forced slavery upon America, 
and ordered her ofQcers in 
the New World to do all 
that they could to encourage 
the trade. In the South, a negro could Uve on cheap food 




GREAT HUUSK VF AN KAKLV I'LA.NTATION 



and 



Avithout many clothes or much shelter, while in the North, if he 
did not have good food, warm clothes, and a comfortable shelter. 



Slavery 



130 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Newspapers 
and mail 



Books 




A POSTRIDER 
(From a print m the Tost Office Department) 



he would die. The result was that people in the northern coIcj 
nies found that slavery tUd not pay, and it was gradually dis- 
appearing. Even in the southern colonies there was a feehng 

that slavery would 



vanish in time. 
The Carolinas were 
not at all pleased, 
and even a little 
alarmed, to have 
so many negroes 
in their territory. 
There was no daily newspaper, and if there had been, people 
would not have received it promptly unless they had lived near 
the printing-office, for even between New York and Philadelpliia 
there was a mail only three times a week, and it took three days 
for the mail carrier, or "postrider," to make the journey. Once a 
month the mail went to England. Sending mail from colony to 
colony was expensive, and a letter of a single sheet sometimes 
cost twenty or twenty-five cents, according to the distance that it 
was carried. Writing a letter 
to a friend was not a business 
to be undertaken without con- 
sideration, and this is one reason 
why the letters of those days 
were so carefully and formally 
written. 

But if the colonists Had fe^^■ 
newspapers and few books, they 
read all the more carefully what 
books they did have, and they 
thought about what they read. 
Most of the books were brought from England, but some were 




iKNiNt; OF Mi:. John i;u(;i:i; 

(From the New England Primer) 



TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 



131 



^y^itten in America, cliiefly volumes of sermons, discourses on 
witclicraft, and some rhymes so dreary that no one cares to read 
them now. 

Almost the only book that the children could claim as their own 
was a tiny volume called the " New England Primer." This con- The New 
tained pages of Bible questions, such as, " Who was the oldest pj^mer 
man ? " or " Who was the meekest man ? " There were long lists 
of hard names, " To teach children to spell their own," said the 
heading; and the Puritan boys and girls must sometimes have 
wondered how learning to spell Methuselah would teach them to 
spell John, but they would never have dared to ask. There was 
a picture of a man tied to a stake and burning to death because 
he did not believe in the king's church. 

There were verses that this man wrote not long before he was 
put to death, and there was an alphabet \vith a picture and a 
rhyme for every letter. This began, — 




la A bam' fi Fain 
We finned all. 



and ended, - 



ZacchetjsIio 
Did climb the Tree 
Our Lord to fee. 



There, too, was the children's evening prayer, " Now I lay me 
down to sleep." This was the children's especial book, and they 
read it and re-read it till all the early copies were so worn out 
that there are no more to be found. 

A famous book that came once a year was "Poor Richard's Poor 
Almanac," written by Benjamin Franklin. Besides having tides, Almanac 
eclipses, etc., Uke other almanacs, it had good advice put into 



132 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




rhyme and little stories, and such proverbs as '"Great talkers,^ 
little doers," and " Tongue double brings trouble," "Doors and 
walls are fools' paper," and " He who pursues two hares at 
once does not catch one and lets t' other go." There were 
often puzzles and riddles to be answered in the next 
number. Some households had little other reading 
except the Bible. The children must have watched 
?v , eagerly for the time when the new almanac would 
come, and they could have new stories and see if 
their guesses of the puzzles w^re correct. 

Getting new clothes was a weighty matter. In 
the North the wool or flax must be raised, spun, 
and woven. In the South, even if a gown was to 
be bought and not groim, it generally had to be ordered from 
England ; and as at least three months would have to pass before 
the buyer could receive it, deciding what to send for was a seri- 
ous business. Travehng was difficult. To go from Philadelphia 
to New York took three days by stage-coach, and when it was 
announced that one was to make the journey in two days, people 
thought the name, the "Flying Ma- 
chine," was well deserved. Every t^^^'^ 
one who visited a city expected 
to have many commissions for 
his friends. Stage drivers 
and postriders "did er- 
rands." Only three or four 
years ago, an old lady on 
Cape Cod said that in her early amf.kk an m\(;f. 

youth she and her friends always sent to Boston by the captain 
of the packet boat for their bonnets. " And they were pretty 
ones, too," she added. 

Many of the things that the colonists would gladly have made 



KHANKLIN'S riMNTI-N': rilhSS 
(Now owned by the Bostonian Society) 



Traveling 




TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 133 

for themselves England would not allow them to make, because England 
the English manufacturers Avished to make money selling their manufac- 
goods to the colonists. If the colonists began to make hammers tures 
and axes, straightway the English manufacturers of hammers 
and axes would get a law passed that no such things should be 
made in America. More than this, no colony was allowed to sell 
goods to any other colony without paying a tax. 
They must buy of England, and whatever they pro- 
duced must be sold to England, even if other coun 
tries would pay a higher price. They must not bm 
a paper of pins from any other countiy, 
no matter how much better and cheapei 
the pins were than those made in Eng 
land. 

These laws were unjust, and the ^ 
colonists broke them just as far as \ 
they dared. Articles were sent from 
one colony to another without the 
payment of any tax, foreign goods "^^-"V. 
were smuggled into the coast towns, 
ships that had never been near Eng- 
land went back and forth among the 
colonies. It seems as if the Enghsh F\NFtiL hall boston 

„ ^ 1 ^ to . , ( Called, on a( count of the patriotic meetings held there 

of a century and a half ago might " The cradie ot Liberty "> 

have seen that if a country was making unjust laws for its colo- 
nies and the colonies were breaking them, there would surely 
be trouble before many years had passed. 

The French wars cost a great amount of money. France might 
possibly try to regain the land that she had lost, and the king and England 
his advisers thought it would be best to keep an army of British fgx'^'th^e^ ^° 
soldiers in America to be ready to oppose the French. England colonies 
decided to tax the colonies to help pay for the war and the new 




rut!'**! 



134 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Writs of 
assistance 



standing army. The colonists answered, " We do not wish to 
have a standing army, and we liave given more than our share to 
the war, for we raised and paid as many men as England." The 
colonists' objections made no difference, and England determined 
to collect in two ways the money needed. One was by imposing 
a few new duties and by enforcing the laws in regard to trade. 
As long as France had power in America, England had not dared 
to be very strict in demanding the taxes on goods brought from 
France and Spain, or very severe in punishing smuggling. Now 
she determined that every penny that the laws allowed should be 
collected. 

The king's oflBcers had the right to have a warrant written by 
the court allowing them to search any special house in which they 
had reason to think there might be smuggled goods. Now they 
obtained what were called writs of assistance. These allowed the 
officers to go into as many houses as they chose without having a 
separate warrant for each one, and if the doors were barred, they 
could call upon the sheriff to break in. This made the 
colonists indignant, but it was according to an old 
English law, and never would have caused the Revo- 
lution. 

The second way of collecting money was by requir- 
ing every legal document, like a will or a mortgage, 
to be written on paper stamped m England. An extra 
price must be paid for the stamp, and if there was no 
stamp, the document was of no value; for instance, 
if a man bought a house, he received a deed, or writ- 
saying that the property was his, but if there was 
on the deed, then he could not defend his right 
to the house in the courts. After the Spanish War, the people 
of the United States obeyed such a law to help pay the cost 
of the war; but the men whom we had chosen to make our 




A STAMP ACT STAMP 

ten paper 
no stamp 



TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 135 

laws were the ones who decided to raise the money in this way, 
and we could find no fault. 

It was different with this stamp tax. In each colony there was 
an assembly of men elected by the people, and only that assembly Right of 
had ever imposed taxes. The colonists replied, " This is not just. House^of*^ 
In England only the House of Commons can impose a tax ; so in Commons 
America, only the assembly of each colony can tax that colony. 
But, if the king asks us to help England, our assemblies will grant 
money as we have often done before." 

England was startled that mere colonies should dare to be so 
independent. In these days a nation is proud of her colonies and How Europe 
glad to have them prosper ; but in the earlier times the countries co^yni^s'^'^ 
of Europe felt differently. They looked upon a colony as a con- 
venient place to send men for whom there seemed to be no work 
and no room at home. It was also a place where a man whom 
the king wished to favor could receive a grant of land or hold 
some office, and thus make his fortune. In matters of trade, the 
mother country never thought of trying to help the colony ; and 
when laws were made in old England, they always aimed at 
getting as much money as possible from the new England across 
the ocean. 

In 1765 the Stamp Act was passed, though many clear-headed 
statesmen in England were against it. Edmund Burke said it The Stamp 
was unjust. William Pitt, who was always a friend to America, ^^' 
said, " England has no right to lay a tax upon the colonies." The 
colonies from New England to Georgia rebelled. The streets 
were fuU of crowds. Images of the men appointed to sell the 
stamped paper were hanged or burned or driven about town in 
the governor's best coach with a figure of Satan for companion. 
The Ueutenant-governor of New York threatened to fire upon the 
rebellious colonists. " You '11 be hanged to a lamp-post if you 
do," was the answer, and he did not fire. In some places build- 



136 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Opposition 
by the 
colonies 



Repeal of 
the Stamp 
Act 



Place to affix the 




ings were torn down, and every scrap of stamped paper that 
could be found was burned or tossed into the ocean. 

It was not all "mob law." The assemblies met and declared 
that it was right to resist tyranny. 
Lawyers agreed that no deed or will 
should be called illegal for the lack of 
a stamp. The newspapers came out 
with a skull and crossbones for a head- 
ing, or with black borders indicating 
the death of liberty. During the French 
and Indian wars, Benjamin Franklin, 
then editor of a paper published in 
KEwsPAPEK IMITATION OF A Philadelphia, had printed a picture of a 

STAMP . 

( From the Boston Gazette, Oct. 7, 1765) suakc cut mto scvcral parts, labeled 
with the names of the different colonies. It was an old super- 
stition that if a snake was cut into pieces it would still live if the 
pieces were united, and under this picture Franklui printed the 
motto, " Unite or die." This design became a favorite emblem. 

In one respect the colonists had matters in their own hands. 
They said, " We will not buy Enghsh goods." No orders were 
sent to England, and ships that crossed the ocean with goods to 
sell had to carry them back. Then the 
English manufacturers begged Parlia- 
ment to give up the tax, and the act 
was repealed. Parliament declared at 
the same time that it had the right to 
tax the colonies, but no one thought 
much about that, and if King George 
III. had not been so unwise and so obstinate, there would proba- 
bly have been no Revolution. 

After a little while, new taxes were imposed, and English 
soldiers continued to come to America. Some were sent to Bos- 



^9 






M 
UNITE 



OR DIE 



FKAVKLIN'S DEVICE 
(The initials indicate the colonies) 



TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 



137 



The "Father 
of the Revo- 
lution" 



ton, and one night a quarrel arose between them and some of The Boston 
the citizens. The soldiers fired and killed five. It shows how Massacre 
aroused the colonists were that they called this the "Boston 
Massacre." It shows how anxious they were to be fair that 
when the soldiers were tried for murder, they were defended by 
two prominent lawyers, John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr. 
Adams said a few years later that this was " one of the best pieces 
of service I ever ren- 
dered my country," 

The colonists re- 
fused to buy any of 
the goods on which a 
tax was demanded. 
Many of them agreed 
to buy nothing made 
in England so long as 
there were duties on 
any goods. One of the 
strong men in this par- 
ty was Samuel Adams, 
who has been called the 
" Father of the Revo- 
lution." 

George III. and his "Friends," as those who supported him 
were called, formed what they thought a very shrewd scheme. The tax on 
The Americans used much tea, and a large part of it was smug- ^^ 
gled from Holland. It was decided to allow tea to be sent to 
America and sold at so low a rate that even with a duty of three 
pence a pound it would be cheaper than the tea that was smuggled. 
" The people will buy the English tea, and the rebellious leaders 
will be left without support," thought the king, and the tea was 
sent over to the large cities on the coast. 




UN M\ss\CRL IN KIISG (NOW STATE) 

STREET 
(From Paul Keveie s engraving) 



138 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



to large 
cities 



s^s^^ij^;^.:^^ 



Charleston .stored the tea sent there in damp cellars, where it 
Tea brought soon spoiled. Philadelphia forbade her pilots to guide the tea- 
shi))s up the Delaware. New York would not let them enter the 
harbor. In Boston the matter was more difficult. The ships 
were in the harbor. They could not leave without the royal 
governor's permission, and he refused to give it. Nineteen days 
they lay at the wharf. On the twentieth day, the custom-house 
officers would have a legal right to unload them, the men who 
had ordered the tea would pay the 
duty, and then they would have pos- 
session of the goods. 

The people of Boston came together 
in the Old South Meeting-House. All 
day long they discussed what it was 
best to do. In the evening two hun- 
dred men appeared in the street and 
marched quietly toward Long Wharf. 
They wore blankets, their heads were 
muffled, and what could be seen of 
their faces was copper-colored. A man 
who saw them wrote cautiously to 
a friend, "They say the actors were 
Indians from Narragansett," but every 
one knew that they were white men 
from Massachusetts. When they came 
to the wharf, they leaped on board 
the tea-ships. Every man drew out a 
hatchet from under his blanket, and 
it was not many minutes before Boston Harbor became a vast 
teapot, for every chest had been broken open and all the tea was 
in the water. Then the " Indians " went quietly to their homes, 
and the " Tea-party " was over. 




PULPIT OF THK OLD SOUTH MEETING-HOUSE 



The Boston 
Tea-party 



TIMES BEFORE THE REVOLUTION 



139 



The brig- Peggy Stewart brought to Annapohs some packages 
of tea among other goods. The vessel could not be unloaded till 
all taxes were paid ; therefore the owner paid the tax 
on the tea. Before this, he had signed the agree- 
ment not to buy or import goods taxed by England 
for revenue, and now the people of Annapolis were 
so angry that they threatened to destroy the brig. 
To prevent a riot he burned his own boat, tea 
and all. This settled the matter hi Maryland. 

The king was determined to punish these 
bold colonists. Boston should suffer first, 
he said, and in 1774 the " Port Bill " was 
passed, which forbade ships coming to the 
city or leavmg it. Boston would lose the 
money that she was makmg from trade, and 
would soon be glad to apologize and pay 
for the " Tea-party." So the king thought ; 
but instead of being frightened, the other 
colonies stood by Massachusetts and sent 
her all khids of provisions. Even far-away 
South Carolina sent ship-loads of rice. Cat- , 
tie and sheep were driven into Boston in flocks. England had 
said that ships should go to Marblehead instead of to Boston; 
but Marblehead said at once to the Boston merchants, " Use our 
wharfs and our warehouses vidthout charge." 

England's treatment of Massachusetts aroused the colonists to 
send delegates to a meeting called " The First Continental Con- 




CAUPENXERS' HALL, riULAUELlMllA 



The first 
Continental 



gress," which was held in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia. The Congress 
Carpenters' Company knew that the king's officers might take 
their hall away for allowing the " rebels " to use it ; but the only 
care they took was to mention no names on their record. They 
said merely, " Voted : That, they be allowed to use our halL" 



140 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



This Congress sent a respectful petition to the king, telling him 
frankly what rights they thought belonged to them and in what 
ways they thought they had been treated unfairly. 




TEA-PAKTY TABLET 
(Corner of Atlantic Ave. and Pearl St.) 

SUMMARY. 

Tn the eighteenth century there were not so many inhabitants in the English 
colonies as there are now in New York and Philadelphia. 

Slavery was fast disappearing in the North, and was not always looked 
upon with favor in the South. 

Mails were slow, and postage was expensive. There were few books, and 
England's refusal to permit manufactures was arousing discontent 
among the colonists. 

England decided to tax the colonists because of the expense of the French 
wars and her wish to station an army in Amei-ica to guard the colonies 
against the French. 

To raise the money, the trade laws were enforced, neW' duties were imposed, 
and the use of stamped paper was required. 

The colonists refused to buy English goods, and resisted the Stamp Act. 
All taxes were repealed except that on tea. 

The attempt to force English tea upon Boston resulted in the Boston Tea- 
party. In retaliation, Parliament passed the Boston Port Bill. 



FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 141 

This treatment aroused the colonists to hold in Philadelphia the First Con- 
tinental Congress, which sent a petition to the king. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

Describe the journey of a postrider from New York to Philadelphia. 
A man tells in 1773 why there will probably be war with England. 
A description of the Boston Tea-party. 
A letter of sympathy to a Bostonian after the passing of the Port BUI. 



XVI 
THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 

1775. 

The Americans had little hope that the king would pay any 
regard to their petition, and they were ready to fight rather 
than yield to mjustice. In almost every colony companies 
were formed and drilled, while in various places arms and 
ammunition were stored. General Gage, who was at 
the head of the British troops in America, decided to 
send eight hundred of his men to Concord, Massachu- c - n~zr'~^ 
setts, to seize the powder and cannon that he knew were 
there. Another thing that the troops were to do was to 
seize Samuel Adams and John Hancock, that they V> -, 

might be taken to England and tried for treason. ■ y '^ 

This plan would have succeeded, but the Ameri- "'^^^^9^% '- 

cans were on the watch, and before the British were 

rOWDEK-HOUSK NKAl: I'.oSTOii 

ready to start, Paul Revere galloped through the (where the Hntisu seized some 
darkness, past the villages and farmhouses on the powder sept. i,i,,4j 

way to Concord, telling every one that the Regulars were coming. 
Thousands of the Americans had become " minute men," that is, The battle of 
they had agreed to be ready to fight at a minute's notice. When ^'''"g^^^" 



142 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The retreat 
of the 
British 



Colonists 
hasten to 
Boston 



the British troops came to Lexington to seize John Hancock, there 
stood the minute men on the green. "Disperse, you rebels!" 
shouted the commander. " Lay down your arms and disperse ! " 
Not one laid down his gun. " Fire ! " cried the commander. In 
a moment, seven Americans lay dead, and the Revolution had 
begun. This w\as on April 19, 1775. 

At Concord the British began to destroy the arms, but so many 
minute men were upon them that there was nothing to do but to 
retreat to Boston. The farmers pursued. Longfellow tells the 
story of the retreat in his " Paul Revere's Ride : " — 
" How the British Regulars fired and fled, — 

How the farmers gave them ball for ball. 

From behind each fence and farm-yard wall, 

Chasing the red-coats down the lane. 

Then crossing the fields to emerge again 

Under the trees at the turn of the road. 

And only pausing to fire and load." 

Long afterwards, when Benjamin Franklin was in Eng- 
Z*' land, some one said that hiding belhnd a wall and 
firing was no way to fight. Franklin asked quietly, 
but with a sly twinkle in his eye, " Did n't those stone 
walls have two sides ? " 
, Men whose names were to become well-knoAvn hur- 
ried to Boston, and although General Gage was in 
command of the British troops and had been ap- 
pointed by the king governor of Massachusetts, he was really a 
prisoner in the city, for he was surrounded by many thousand 
men. Among these men was Israel Putnam, of Connecticut, who 
had left his plough in the field and started for Boston as soon 
as the news of the battle of Lexington reached hun. There was 
also Benedict Arnold with sixty volunteers. Arnold suggested 
that Fort Ticonderoga, at the northern end of Lake George, ought 




THE MISUTE MAN 

(D. C. French's statue at 

Concord) 



FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 143 



to be captured, not only because there was in this fort a great 
supply of powder and guns, but because if no Americans were 
there to prevent, the British troops could come down from Canada 
and take New York. 

With the permission of Massachusetts, Arnold set out to raise 
troops in the western part of the state ; but much to his surprise, 
he found there Ethan AUen, a sturdy Vermonter, with his " Green 
Mountam Boys," and they, too, were on the way to capture Fort 
Ticonderoga, Allen had more men, and the " Boys " would not 
fight under any one else, so Arnold went on, not as commander, 
but as a volunteer. The two men and the 
" Boys " came upon Ticonderoga when the gar- 
rison were fast asleep without a thought of dan- 
ger. The commander was suddenly aroused by 
a demand to " Surrender ! " He jumped out of 
bed, not more than half awake, and said, " To 
v\^hom ? By whose authority ? " " In the name 
of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Con 
gress," roared Ethan Allen, and the fort was sur- 
rendered. This was only three weeks after the 
battle of Lexington. 

On that same day, the Second Continental Con- 
gi-ess was meeting in Philadelphia. John Hancock, 
whom the king was so anxious to catch, was made 
president. Benjamhi Franklin, Samuel Adams, and 
his cousin John Adams, Patrick Henry, the great 
patriotic orator, and Washington, were all members 
of this Congress. They knew that war must come, 
and they adopted the forces around Boston as 
the "Continental Army." A commander-in-chief 
must be chosen, and every one remembered how skiUfully Wash 



The capture 
of Fort 
Ticonderoga 




lill||ii|iiiii|| 



1 11 VN Al 1 1 N 
( 1 rom the statue in the Vei mont 
House, ilontpelier) 



Continental 
Army organ- 
ington had saved part of Braddock's army at Fort Duquesne ized 



144 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




SAMUEL ADAMS 
(From Copley's portrait) 



when lie was only twenty-three years of age. He was from the 
large colony of Virginia, and the election of 
a southern commander for an army which 
was as yet made up wholly of northern men 
would help to strengthen the union among 
the colonies, so Washington was elected com- 
mander-in-chief. 

He set out on horseback for the eleven 
days' ride to Boston, but before he had gone 
many miles from Philadelphia, he heard what 
had happened in the east. General Gage was 
in Boston, and the American troops were in 
a half circle around the city. Gage knew that 
if they should come a little nearer and fortify 
Bmiker Hill 
and Breed's 

Hni, they could fire mto his 

camp. He decided to seize Bunker 
The battle of Hill. The Americans found out 

the plan, and when Gage awoke 

June 17, 1775, ready to send men 

to the hill, behold, the Americans 

were putting up earthworks. 

They were not on Bunker Hill, 

to be sure, but they had come 

even nearer and were fortifying 

Breed's Hill. General Gage and 

his officers thought just as Brad- 
dock had thought, that nothmg 

could withstand British Regu- 
lars, and he decided to storm the hill. The Americans had too 

little powder to waste a single charge. " Wait, boys, wait till you 



Bunker Hill 




JOHN ADAMS 
(From a portrait by Trumbull) 



FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 145 

can see the whites of their eyes," called Colonel Prescott. Nearer 
and nearer came the British. " Fire ! " ordered the commander, 
and there was such a volley that the brave, well-trained Regulars 
broke ranks and ran. Again they charged, again the Americans 
fired, and again the Regulars fled. A third time the British 




BUKKISG OF CHAKLESTOWM AND THE BATTLE OK !■ 

(Drawn by a British oflScer at the time from Beacon Hill) 



dashed up the hill. The Americans' powder had given out ; there 
was nothing to do but to retreat ; and they retreated, not down- 
cast, but jubilant, for they, the untrained farmers and citizens, 
had twice driven back the British veterans. 

The great elm in Cambridge under which "Washington took Washington 
command of the army is still standing. The house in Cambridge ni^^jj ^f (j^g 

which was his headquarters is the one that was for so many American 

forces 
years the home of Longfellow. The poet writes : — 

" Once, all, once, within these walls. 
One whom memory oft recalls. 
The Father of his Country, dwelt. 



Up and down these echoing stairs, 
Heavy with the weight of cares, 
Sounded his majestic tread ; 
Yes, within this very room 



146 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The last 
appeal to the 
king 



Montreal 
and Quebec 
attacked 



Sat he in those hours of gloom, 
Weary both in heart and head." 

It is no wonder that he was weary. Thousands of men were 
looking up to him for ordei-s. They were jubilant over Bunker 
Hill ; they had not forgotten the glories of Louisburg. Many 
would have been glad to plunge into another battle anywhere at 
any moment. Washington saw that bravery alone would not 
always win the day, that there must also be drill and training. 
There must be powder and cannon. It was not time to fight. 
Meanwhile Congress met again. Samuel Adams said that the 
BBsafsaiSj colonies had cut loose from 
luigland, then why not de- 
clare them independent? 
< )thers said, " No ; let us 
try once more." A last 
petition was sent to the 
Iving, and the man chosen 
to carry it was a descendant 
of William Penn. This did 
no good, for the king would 
not even read the paper. It 
was not easy to get English- 
men to fight their own peo- 
ple ui America, and he hired 
many thousand German 
troops called Hessians. 
For the king to call in 
foreigners to fight his own subjects, who felt that they were ask- 
uig only for justice, made the Americans more indignant than 
ever. They learned that the British meant to come by the way 
of Lake Champlain and seize Fort Ticonderoga, so they decided 
to attack Montreal. Benedict Arnold suggested marching up 




GllEAX ELM i^ (JAilUKilJGK 

(Under which Washington took command of the 

Continental army) 




FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 147 

through the Maine forests to capture Quebec. It was a terrible 
journey. The men must make their way over swamps, among 
briers, across swiftly flowing rivers, and through the tangled under- 
brush. Many died. The others, sick, and weakened by their lack 
of food in the wilderness, made their way to the city on the rock, 
climbed up to the Plains of Abraham, and called upon the garri- 
son to surrender or else come out 
and fight. The commander would 
do neither. General Montgomery 
had led a second expedition by 
way of Lake Champlain, and he 
soon came from his victory over 
the English at Montreal. There i'I'itish cannoxx captured in the revolution 
was fighting, and if Montgomery had not been slain and Arnold 
disabled, Quebec would probably have come mto American hands. 
This was on the last day of 1775. In that year the Americans 
had taken Ticonderoga and Montreal, but they had been defeated Events of 
at Bunker Hill and at Quebec. The greatest gain of the season 
was that they had lost their fear of the British Regulars. 

1776. 
The year 1776 began. Washington still trained his men and 
did his best to collect powder and cannon. The Americans be- Washington 
came impatient. " Why does n't he do something ? " they com- troops 
plained. John Hancock, who owned many houses in Boston, said, 
" Burn the town and drive the British out." Washington was 
wiser than they, and he waited; eight long months he spent 
teaching his brave fighters to become an army. March came. 
Many cannon had been dragged all the way across Massachusetts 
from Fort Ticonderoga, and now he could " do something." Gen- 
eral Gage had gone back to England, and General Howe had 
taken his place. ->■ 



148 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The evacua- 
tion of 
Boston 



One night General Howe had little sleep, for Washington's 
cannon roared until morning. When it was light, the astonished 
British commander saw that all this firing had been done only 
to keep hmi from finding out that the Americans were fortifying 
Dorchester Heights, now a part of South Boston. " Drive them 
from the Heights," said the commander of the fleet, " or we must 
leave the harbor." The American fortifications grew stronger 
every hour. The British remembered Bunker Hill, and, brave 
< ;. , V < c nien as they were, they did 

not care to storm another hill 
^^™^' with Americans at the top. 

March 17, 1776, Howe and his 
army sailed away for HaUfax. 
This is why Boston celebrates 
the Seventeenth of March as 
Evacuation Day. 

The British did more than 
to take themselves away ; they 
carried with them nearly a 
thousand citizens who stood 
by the king, and, either be- 
cause of haste or because the 
boats were crowded, quanti- 
ties of powder and many can- 
non were left behind. The 
presence of these articles was 
as welcome to the Americans as was the absence of the British. 
Howe would surely go to New York, thought Washington ; there- 
fore he and his army went to New York to be ready for them. 

July 4, 1776, saw the great event of the year. On a table in the 
State House in Philadelphia lay a document. Fifty-six men signed 
their names to it. That was all, but this act was the beginning 




JOHN 11 VNUn k - llDl -I IN 1 -loN 
(On Hearon Street, near the "state House Demolished l»i.J) 



FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 149 




of the United States, for the docuiueiit was the Declaration of The Decla- 
Independence. It named one by one the acts of injustice of which indeDend- 
the king liad been guUty. Then it declared, ence 
"That these united colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent states." 

The man who wrote the Declaration was 
Thomas Jefferson, a Virginian, and one of the 
youngest men in Congress. He was a lawyer, 
a musician, a skillful horseman, a student, a 
gentle, kindly man, but firm as an oak in the 
THE LIBERTY BELL causc of liberty. It required much courage to 
sign this paper, for if England won, the signers would be looked 
upon as the leaders of the rebellion and would receive the most 
severe punishment. " We must all hang together, or we shall 
hang separately," said Franklin. John Hancock wrote his name 
in a large, bold hand, " So that King 
George can read it without specta 
cles," he declared. When Charles 
Carroll signed, some one jestingly 
said, "You are safe, for there 
are so many Carrolls in Mary- 
land that the king will not know 
where to find you." " I '11 show 
him," rephed Carroll, and wrote 
" of Carrollton " after his name. 

The colonies, or rather states, 
had declared their freedom, but 
could they force England to ac- 
knowledge it, and could they win the aid of any other country; 
No one could tell, but, nevertheless, there was great rejoicing. It The Liberty 
began in Philadelphia with the ringing of the " Liberty Bell," as 
the bell of the State House was afterwards called. Strangely 




KI.Ii SIATK IIorsE IN nilLADELPHIA IN irs 
(This building is now known as Independence Hall) 



Bell 



150 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




IIIOMAS Jl.l 
(After the crayon portrait by St. M§mm) 



The king's 
offer of par- 
don 



enough, the lettering on the bell read, " Proclaim Uberty through^ 
^Mjl^pgp^^ out the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." 

This bell was cast just before Washington 
carried the letter through the wilderness to the 
French. Another message was to go to them 
before long, but this time Franklin was to be 
the messenger. 

South Carolina had some good news to con- 
tribute to the rejoicing. British ships had 
appeared off Charleston, but on an island in 
the harbor Colonel Moultrie had built a rough 
fort of palmetto logs and sand. An officer 
who had fought in Europe sneered at the 
work, but when the enemy came, the little 
home-made fort saved the city. Ever after this, the fort was 
called Fort Moultrie in honor of the 
leader whose wisdom and bravery had 
saved Ms state. 

While the Declaration lay on the 
table in Philadelphia, Admiral Lord 
Howe, brother of General Howe, was 
crossing the ocean with more soldiers. 
He sent a letter to Washington ad- 
dressed to " George Washington, Esq.," 
but the American commander would 
not receive it because he thought it an 
impertinence to the states that he should 
not be addressed as commander-in-chief 
of the army. An envoy came to see 
him, and told him that the letter contained the king's offer of 
pardon to all rebels who would cease to rebel. "We have com- 
mitted no fault," said Washington, "and we need no pardon." 




BENJAMIN FRANKLIN 
( From a painting by Duplessis) 



FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 151 



"Has your Excellency any message for Lord Howe?" asked the 
envoy. " Only my particular compliments," answered Washington 
courteously. 

Washington had been right in going to New York, for the Washington 
British planned to get possession of the city and the Hudson ^^^^ ^^^ 
River. The Americans had no warships, and if the British could 
keep New England and the 
South apart, they could 
conquer them separately. 
Washington held New York 
and two small forts, one on 
the north end of Manhattan 
Island and one across the 
Hudson. He also held 
Brooklyn Heights on Long 
Island. General Howe 
meant to take the Heights. 
He had many more men, 
and there was nothing for 
the Americans to do but 
to flee. In the darkness of 
a foggy night Washington 
sent powder, cannon, and 
men across the river in any little boats that he could find, and 
when General Howe chmbed into the fort, there was notliing 
there. 

Washington could not hold New Y^ork now that the British 
had Brooklyn Heights. He went farther up the Hudson, and the Retreat to 
British pursued. Washington had not nearly as many soldiers as ^^^g ^ ^' 
would be needful to face them, and there was nothing to do but to 
retreat. Such a retreat as it was. Congress had no money and 
the men were but half-clothed and half- fed. They n^rched across 



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CENTUAL SCENE OF WAl 



152 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The battle 
of Trenton 




WASHINGTON CROSSING THE DELAWAKE 
(From the painting by Emanuel Leutze) 

New Jersey, stopping now and then to burn a bridge behind 
them. At last they were safe on the Pennsylvania side of the 
Delaware River, while on the Jersey side were the British under 
General Cornwallis. The British could not cross, for Washington 
had taken every boat that could be found. 

Christmas came. It was a sad Christmas for the Americans, 
but the next day there was rejoicing. Twenty years earlier 
Washington had crossed the Monongahela m the floating ice, and 
he was not to be dismayed by the Delaware. " The war is over," 
thought Cornwallis, and he sent his baggage to New York to be 
ready to sail for England. The next news that reached him was 
that this American general, who never would do what was ex- 
pected of him, had crossed the Delaware in spite of the floating 
ice, had marched nine miles to Trenton in a fierce snowstorm, 
had fallen upon the Hessians, half stupefied with their Christmas 
celebration, and had captured one thousand. CornwalUs did not 
sail for England. 



FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE REVOLUTION 153 

1776 was an eventful year. It began with an untried general 
training his men into an army. Before the year was over, the Events of 
British had been driven from Massachusetts and South Carolina, 
the Declaration of Independence had been signed, and the untried 
general had shown that he could fight, or, if it seemed best, that 
he could retreat in a masterly fashion, and even in his retreat 
win a victory. 

SUMMARY. 

1775. The first bloodshed of the war took place at Lexington on April 19. 
The battle of Bunker Hill and the capture of Fort Ticonderoga and Mon- 
treal encouraged the colonists, though they had failed to take Quebec. 

Washington took command of the American troops around Boston and 

trained them into an army. 
The king hired Hessian soldiers. 

1776. The British troops were forced to leave Boston and were defeated in 
South Carolina. 

The Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia by representa- 
tives from the colonies. 

The Americans abandoned Brooklyn Heights and were obliged to reti-eat 
through New Jersey and across the Delaware River. 

Washington showed his ability in his sudden marches and in his successful 
attack on Trenton. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A boy describes the retreat of the British on April 19, 1775. 
The commander of Fort Ticonderoga tells about the surrender. 
A messenger tells Washington about the battle of Bunker Hill. 
A British soldier describes the evacuation of Boston. 
Read about the early life of Franklin, and write its story. 



154 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



XVII 
THE LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 

1777. 

The British pursued the troublesome American general, and 
Bagging the found him on a point of land with the Delaware on the west and 
a little creek on the north. CornwalUs encamped just across the 
creek. He thought, " My men need rest. The other forces will 
be here in the morning. Then we can cross the creek and bag 
the old fox." He slept the happy sleep of the man who sees a 
successful day before him. 
All night long the British sentinels could see Washington's 
The battle of campfires and could hear the Americans digging and throwing up 
Princeton fortifications. When Cornwallis awoke in the morning, he heard 
cannon ; but they were not in front of him across the little creek, 
they were behind him at Princeton. The " old fox " had marched 
his troops around in the night, and was routmg the forces that 
Cornwallis was patiently awaiting. The few men that had been 
left to keep up the fires and rattle the spades had slipped away 
through the woods at the last minute, and were helping to win 
the day at Princeton. Cornw^allis was too good a soldier not to 
appreciate the brilliancy of this movement, and long afterwards 
he said to Washington, "Nothing could surpass your achieve- 
ments in New Jersey." 
It was not easy to follow the Americans, for they had burned 
Washington the bridges behind them, and Washington made his way safely to 
town^'^'^'^' ^^^^ ^^'^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^ IMorristown. So long as he was there, the British 
could not pass him to go to Philadelpliia. They decided that the 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 155 




GEORGE WASHINGTON 

(From the Trumbull portrait at Yale College) 

best tiling to do was to spend the winter in New York, and this 
they did. 

Washington had to meet other difficulties tlian battles. When 
there is war in these days, some favor it and some do not. So it Differences 
was in Revolutionary times. Some Americans were ready to give about "he" 
their lives and every penny they possessed to win independence, war 
Others thought that it was a Avrong and foolish tiling to oppose 
their lawful king. Some believed that war was always a crime, 



156 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




The lack of 
money 



Robert 
Morris 



FLIXTLOCK PISTOL 

(Given to AVashington by 

Lafayette) 



no matter for what reason it was fought. Some joined the army 
for adventure, some to get the pay that was promised. People 
were people then as well as now. 

The lack of money was a great diffi- 
culty. Congress had issued paper money, 
but paper money is of no worth unless 
the government that issues it is able to 
give gold for it that will be of value any- 
where, and no one knew whether this little company of states 
would ever be able to pay what the bills promised. Even the 
truest patriot hesitated to stay in the army with no money to 
send to his wife and children who were starving at home. 
Congress had no power to make people pay taxes or to enlist. 
One man after another gave all that he could. Franklin lent the 
country his little savings ; Washington would accept no salary, 

and he agreed to use his jg ^iM stmmMmjm m ' i:XD 
own fortune to pay the 
soldiers, if Congress failed ; 
but it was Robert Morris, 
a rich banker of Philadel- 
phia, who was the real 
"fmancial backer" of the 
Revolution. Washmgton 
was the winner of battles, 
but Robert Morris made it 
possible for him to have 
an army. Samuel Adams 
was the " Father of the Revolution 
and Morris was the banker. 

Franklin fought no battles, and he had little money to give. 
The thing that he gave was influence, the power to persuade men 
to do as he wished. Not long after the Declaration, Franklin and 



pixtj/^offays. Nor? if 44 > 



Vf?^ Bill cnHi^e, 
\thc Bearer to receive 
BSixtySpanifh mill- 
led Dollars, «r 

(■feVahet&rc^fir. 
SGold or Silvet, i:c- 
kardlngtia. Refolii- 
!;tion kajfei Sy <Soti- 
'grefsifPfcy4/^c, 

iSc/tt 26 f.'h 1778. 




■i>'i:ntal I'Ai'Ei; mu> 

I'w o tliirds of the real size) 



Washington was the general, 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 



157 



two others had been sent to France to try to wm the help of the Franklin in 

French king. So long as the revolt was only a rebellion, the king ^^^^^ 

could have nothing to do with it ; but if there was good hope 

of its being a successful revolution, he was ready to strike a blow 

at the land that only twenty years before had driven him out of 

his possessions in America. It began to appear that Washington 

was a great general. There was once a Koman commander who 

could not only fight, but who weakened his enemy hy " jirudent 

delay." His name was Fabius, and __ 

Washmgton began to be called the 

"American Fabius." The French 

king hesitated. 

Meanwhile Franklin became the 
fashion in France. The Parisians 
delighted in even his wliims and 
oddities. Every one wanted to 
see how " Poor Richard " looked 
and to hear him talk. The govern- 
ment moved slowly, but there was 
a rich young nobleman named 
Lafayette, only nineteen years old, 
who would not wait for king or 
councilors. He bought a ship, fitted 
it out, invited some veterans to go 

with him, and sailed away for the land whose independence he 
meant to help win. The Americans rejoiced at his coming, and 
he was happy with them. " I feel as if I had known them twenty 
years," this boy of nineteen wrote home. Lafayette was a brave 
soldier, and the veterans who came with him were of the greatest 
help to Washington in training his troops ; but of most impor- 
tance was the evidence that friends across the seas would surely 
help America if she could only endure a little while longer. 




LAFAYETTE 
1 contemporary engraving) 



158 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Burgoyne's 
invasion 



Bennington 



During the winter the British government planned for Genera) 
Howe to go up the Hudson ; for General Burgoyne to come down 
from Canada, capturing Fort Ticonderoga on the way, and for 
another body of troops to come from Lake Ontario down the 
Mohawk Valley. All three would meet, and the British would 
control the State of New York. 

Burgoyne captured Ticonderoga. Food, horses, and ammuni- 
The battle of tion had been collected in the little Vermont village of Bennmg- 
ton, and Burgoyne planned to send some soldiers to take these 
supplies. The plan might have succeeded if it had not been for 
Colonel John Stark, a New Hampshire man who had fought m 
the French and Indian wars and at Bunker Hill. In the promo- 
tions Congress had not done him justice. He was too indignant 

to serve m the army; but 

when the British invaded 

liis own state, for Vermont 

was then claimed by New 

Hampshire, he raised eight 

hundred men, asked an 

American officer to lend him 

a regiment, and marched 

out to fight. "I'm under 

no man's command," said 

he. " I take my orders from 

the State of New Hamp^ 

shire." His men had no 

uniforms, and their weapons 

were anything that they 

could get, but they carried the day. Congress pardoned Stark for 

making war all by himself and appointed him a brigadier-general. 

Burgoyne was in great danger, but if the troops could come 

do\vn the Mohawk, he would be saved. This expedition had 



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REGION OF BURGOYNE'S INVASION 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 159 

come as far as Fort StaiiAvix, where Rome now stands. There The Ameri- 
had already been fightmg. The Americans had dashed out of the ^^" ^^ 
fort and captured five British flags. They hoisted them upside 
down, and far above them there floated the most remarkable 
banner that ever waved in the New York wilderness. One sol- 
dier gave a white shirt, another an old blue jacket, and a third 
contributed some strips of red flannel from his wife's petticoat. 
So it was that the flag adopted by Congress was made, and for 
the first time " Old Glory " swung out to the breeze.^ Benedict 
Arnold had been sent to assist the soldiers at Fort Stanwix. He 
contrived to spread the rumor ahead of him that Burgoyue had 
been defeated. The British fied back to Lake Ontario. 

These rumors became true not long afterwards, for General 
Howe seemed to think chiefly of capturing the "rebel capital," as Burgoyne's 
he called Philadelphia, and the paper ordering him to go up the surrender 
Hudson and help Burgoyne lay in the desk of a man in London 
who had gone oft' for a vacation and forgotten all about it. Two 
battles were fought near Saratoga, and Burgoyne was obhged to 
surrender. One of the soldiers wrote : — 
" The seventeenth of October 

They did capitulate; 
Burgoyne and his j)roud army 

Did we our prisoners make." 

The main event of 1777, the third year of the war, was the 
failure of the British to gain the Hudson. To prevent this, Wash- Events of 
ington had lost Philadelphia ; but the enemy could be driven from ^ 
Philadelphia; while the British, once in full possession of the 
Hudson, could have conquered the country at their leisure. His 
skillful retreat across New Jersey, his victory at Princeton, and 
his masterly fashion of delaying the enemy when he could not 
fight them, had won the attention of Europe, and had given his 
' Fiske's American Eevolution. 



160 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



soldiers that confidence in their leader without which the most 
competent general is helpless. Still, if Washington had known 
what lay before him in the next few months, it seems as if even 
he would have quailed. 



1778. 
The British forces were in Philadelphia, comfortably housed. 
Valley Forge well fed, giving balls, and amusing themselves. Washington and 
his men were at Valley Forge. A small stone house which is still 
standing was the headquarters of the commander. One room is 
devoted to portraits of him, but in those harassing days he had 
little thought of his own portrait. It was 
bitterly cold. The men were in huts of 
woven boughs, or any rude shelter that 
they could make. There was not even 
straw enough for their beds, and many 
a man sat by the fire all night because 
he had no blanket. Shoes were lacking, 
and the bare feet left blood on the snow. 
Meat failed, sometimes bread failed. 
The country was not poor, but Con- 
gress had httle power and none too 
much Avisdom. 
The arrangements for providing 
the army with food were absurd. 
Men were appointed to positions 
which they had no idea how to 
fill, and men whose bravery de- 
served a great reward were passed over. A conspiracy was 
formed against Washington. He knew of it, but went on calmly 
through even the sufferings of that terrible winter. 
The great gain of those dreary months was that the army was 




A KEVOLUTIOXARY DANCE 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 



161 



linely drilled for future work. Baron von Steuben, a great German Baron von 
soldier, came to America expressly to help Washington train his drfus the 
barefooted, half-naked men. France had sent him, for she had American 
decided to help the colonies, and she wished the American army 
to be drilled by a thorouglily competent 
drill-master. Baron von Steuben was 
hot-tempered. He would storm at the 
men in a mixture of German and French, 
and call for some one to come and scold 
them for him in English. The next 
minute he would applaud their quick- 
ness in learning the difficult manoeu- 
vres. The men were fond of the gruff, 
kind-hearted old soldier, and were most 
willing learners. 

When Franklin in Paris heard that 
Howe had captured Philadelphia, the 
old philosopher said, "Howe has not 
taken Philadelphia, but Philadelphia has 
taken Howe," and that was really the way it seemed. He was 
in the city, but Washington was only twenty miles away, and Howe in 
Howe could not well do anything but stay in the city, and feel ' a e p i 
as happy as possible over the fact that he had taken the " rebel 
capital." 

Spring came. A French fleet was on its way to help the Amer- 
icans. The British had found that it was of no use to stay in Aid is com- 
Philadelphia, and they started to bring their forces together in '"^ 
New York. Washington pursued. There was a battle at Mon- 
mouth, now Freehold, and had it not been for the insolent disobe- 
dience of a jealous officer, it would have been a great victory. 

All the summer and autumn of 1778 there were no great 
battles, but there were skirmishes in many places between small 




15AK0N VON STEUBEN 



162 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 





Jndiafis and bodies of troops. In one way some of these attacks were worse 
Tories ^^y^^^ the real battles, for the British had induced the Iroquois to 

join them. Bands of these savages, the most fierce ^^ 
of all the Indians of the east, were led by Tories, W^ 
or men who still wished to be under the king. W^ 

They fell upon little settlements in New York 
and Pennsylvania, and tortured and mur- 
dered the helpless people with the most ter- , ^^^ 
rible barbarity. "^^if ' 

Clark saves The " far West," or what is now Indiana 
west ^^^ ' '^^^^^ lUinois, was in danger. There were 

forts and old French 
towns here and there, 
and the English thought 
they could unite the 
Indian tribes and de- 
stroy these settlements. 
Unfortunately for their 

schemes, a young Virginia surveyor 
named George Rogers Clark also had a 
scheme. Thomas Jefferson, and Patrick 
Henry, who was then governor of Vir- 
ginia, approved Ms plan, and he set out 
for Indiana with a few men. When his 
messengers returned to Virgmia, they 
had a thrilling story to tell, for the 
adventurous young surveyor had taken 
Vincennes and other places. He had 
driven back the British, and had actu- 
ally won for the United States the vast expanse of country be- 
1 From the statue in Kiclmioiid of Andrew Lewis, a Kevolutiouary leader 
in Kentucky. 



A BACKWOODSMAN < 
THE KEVOLUTION ' 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 163 

tween the Ohio and the Great Lakes, and as far west as the 
Mississippi. 

The British had failed in tlieir two attempts to win the State 
of New York, their plans to conquer New England had not sue- The British 
ceeded, and now they decided to begin at the southern end of the ^^^^^ Geor- 
line of colonies and try to get possession of Georgia. They were 
successful, and they began to feel as if this plan would surely 
conquer the rebellious colonies. 

The year 1778 began with the sufferings at Valley Forge, and 
ended with the loss of Georgia ; but, on the other hand, during Events of 
this year France had become the ally of America, and the "far ^^"^^ 
West" had been saved for the states. Such a year could hardly 
be called unsuccessful. 

1779. 

There had been many sea fights between English and Ameri- 
can vessels. Sometimes one side won, and sometimes the other. The Bon 
The greatest naval fight was between the British man-of-war Rjch'a'rdand 
Serapis and the American ship Bon Homme Richard, so called in the Serapis 
honor of Franklin's " Poor Richard." It took place just off the 
coast of England. The captain of the American vessel was a ' 
Scotchman named John Paul Jones. After an hour's cannonad- 
ing, the captain of the Serapis called, " Have you struck your 
colors ? " "I have n't yet begun to fight," shouted Captain Jones. 

In these days a naval battle is carried on by cannon between 
ships a long way apart, but in Captain Jones's time one vessel 
sometimes clutched the other with grappling hooks, and there was 
a short, savage, hand-to-hand fight on deck. So jt was between 
these two vessels, and the Bon Homme Richard was victorious. 
P^ngland could endure to lose a battle on land, but to be so 
thoroughly defeated on the ocean and just off her own coast was 
humiliating. It was a little embarrassing to claim to be "Mis- 



164 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




IE BOM HOMME RICHARD 

I'd Paton) 



tress of the Seas," when m a fair fight one of her new men-of-war, 
well-armed, and manned with a trained crew, had been beaten by 
an old American ship with poorer guns and a crew from at least 
six or eight different nations. It is no wonder that other countries 
began to feel more and more confident that America w*ould win. 



Both Eng- 
land and 
America in 
difficulties 



1780. 

In 1780 both America and England were in difficulties. Amer- 
ica needed money. Had it not been for the gifts and loans of 
France, she would have had to yield before. The paper money of 
the Continental Congress was only laughed at, and the old phrase 
of scorn, " not worth a Continental," has not yet gone out of use. 
Washington said, "It takes a wagon-load of money to buy a 
wagon-load of provisions." England needed friends, for France 
and several other countries had united to oppose her. 

England had failed in New York, but she had succeeded in 
Georgia, and she meant to take South Carolina and work her 
way north. At first all went smoothly, for Cornwallis captured 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 



165 



'.- ^ 



NORTH CmPO 



r 



\ 



Benedict 
Arnold 



Charleston and Camden. Soon he wrote home, " But for Sumter Guerrilla 

and Marion, South Carolma would be at peace." Marion was ^g^s^Juth" 

called the "Swamp Fox," but this would have been as good a 

name for almost any of the fighters who were such a trouble to 

Cornwallis. They lived in the swamps and on the mountains, 

and whenever the English felt especially secure, a band of these 

men would suddenly dash out, shoot a few " red-coats," rescue 

a handful of prisoners, and be out of sight before the enemy had 

a fair look at them. Indian warfare had been a good training for 

the Americans, and the Regulars 

never could become accustomed to 

this exceedingly irregular fashion 

of fighting. 

Among Washington's most 
trusted officers was Benedict Ar- 
nold. He had helped to capture 
Ticonderoga, he had led the march 
through the Maine wilderness, he 
had gone to the aid of Fort Stan- 
wix, and he was one of the two 
men who had forced Burgoyne to 
surrender. Congress had not pro- the seat of wau in the south 
moted him as he — and Washington — thought he deserved. 
Instead, however, of behavmg so nobly that every one would see 
that Congress had made a mistake, he committed such a crime 
that people felt that Congress had been in the right. 

The one thing that the British wanted most was to gain control 
of the Hudson, The strongest fort on the river was at West Arnold's 
Point. Arnold asked Washington to give him command of it, *'"^^s°" 
and Washington did so willingly, and Avithout the least suspicion 
that his trusted officer meant to surrender it to the enemy. Major 
Andre was sent by the English to make the final plans. He was 



166 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



captured, papers showing his mission were found in his posses- 
sion, and he was hanged as a spy. Arnold escaped to the British 
lines. He received a large amount of money and was made an 
officer in the British army, but he was despised for being a traitor. 
Andre was risking his life to serve his own country, and although 
by the custom of war he was hanged, every one was sorry, and 
wished Arnold could have been in his place. 
The traitor is said to have asked an Ameri- 
can prisoner what his countrymen would 
do with him if they caught him. "They 
would bury with the honors of war the leg 
that was wounded at Quebec and Saratoga, 
and the rest of you they would hang on a 
gibbet," was the answer. 

This terrible treason of the man whom 
lie had trusted was a heavy blow to Wash- 
ington. Tears fell from his eyes, but in all 
his sorrow and wrath he remembered the 
grief and anxiety of Arnold's wife, and sent 
her a message that her husband had escaped. 
So ended the year 1780, saddened by losses 
in the South, by the treason of a trusted officer, and by suffer- 
ings at Morristown, where Washington's army wintered, equal to 
those at Valley Forge. 




MAJOR ANDRE 
(From a portrait by himself) 



A hard win- 
ter at Morris- 
town 



1781. 

During the winter of 1780-81 the soldiers were freezing and 
starving, and seemed almost ready to revolt, but when British 
spies offered high pay to any one who would desert and join the 
English army, the men indignantly refused. 

Washmgton was keeping close watch on the Hudson, but in the 
South Cornwallis held South Carolina. General Greene was sent 



LATTER PART OF THE REVOLUTION 



167 







j^ ^Ai^.i^'^i 5^ 


^^VlV^K^P^^ 


MHH|^HHWH^^K 


^^ 


Kb^^ 


^^g^^^^^H 


H^^H 



THE SUKKKJ^DKK Ot COKNWALLIS 

(From Trumbull's picture in the Capitol at Washington) 



against him. Sometimes one lost and sometimes the other, but, 

losing or winning, Greene was- marching across North Carolina, 

and the British were pursuing. In the middle of the summer 

Cornwallis went to Yorktown, Virginia. The English ships would Cornwallis 

soon bring aid from New York, he thought. So they would, but at^Yorktown 

the French ships were coming, too. Lafayette, whom he called 

" the boy," was pressing nearer. Washington suddenly dashed 

across the country and joined his ally. The French ships were 

on one side, the American forces on the other ; there was nothing 

to do but to yield, October 19, 1781, Cornwallis surrendered. 

The ne\A^s came to Philadelphia in the night. It was the custom 

for the watchman to call the hour and say, " All is well ; " but that 

night he called, "Past three o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken!" 

Except for a little trouble with the Indian aUies of the British, 



168 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



the war was over. The Americans were free, antl now it re- 
mamed to be seen what they would do with their freedom. 



SUMMARY. 

1777. Washington's ability as a commander won respect in Europe. 
Franklin gained friends in France, and Lafayette came to aid the Americans. 

1778. The British took Philadelphia, but their plan to cut New England 
from New York failed, and Burgoyne's army was captured at Saratoga. 

The Americans suffered much at Valley Forge from cold and hunger, but 
France promised aid and Clark saved the Northwest for the United 
States. 

The British planned to take Georgia and work to the north. 

1779-1781. The victories of the Bon Homme Richard increased European 
confidence in the final success of America. 

Arnold's treason was a great blow to Washington and to the country. 

The surrender of Cornwallis in 1781 practically closed the war. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

One of Cornwallis's soldiers writes home what happened on the Delaware. 

Describe the making of the flag at Fort Stanwix. 

A day at Valley Forge. 

A British soldier describes one of Marion's attacks. 



XVIII 
THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 



Disagree- 
ments 
among the 
colonies 



1782-1789. 
The thirteen colonies had stood together to resist the king, but 
now each one began to think what would be best for itself. There 
were many difficult questions to settle, and no one had any right 



THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 




WASHINGTON KESIGNING HIS COMMISSION AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF 
(From Truinbull's painting in the Yale Art Gallery) 

to settle them. The most pressing matter was how to raise 

money. Congress could impose taxes, but if a state did not 

choose to pay them, there was no power to make it ; and some 

people said, " We would not let Parliament tax us, and we will 

not let Congress." During the war, the Americans had paid no Financial 

debts to British merchants, and, indeed, had been forbidden to ' ^^^ ^'^^ 

pay such debts. Congress now requested the people to pay, but 

they did not obey. England retaliated in several ways, one of 

which was to pass laws that injured American commerce. The 

Americans could not make any such laws against England and so 

force that country to treat them fairly, because a law that might 

be of advantage to one state might not be of value to another, and 

they could not agree among themselves what laws to make. Each 

state was looking out for itself, and there were so many disagree- 



170 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The North- 
western Ter- 
ritory 



The Consti- 
tution 



The Presi- 
dent's term 
of office 



ments that few people in Europe believed the union would last. 
" They '11 soon come back," thought George III., " and ask to be 
under our rule again." Some of Washington's oflBcers even began 
to plot to have a kingdom and make their commander king, but 
he sternly rebuked them for thinking of such a plan. 

Fortunately there was one thing in which every state was inter- 
ested, and that was the Northwestern Territory. Several states 
had claims upon it, but at last it was agreed to put the whole area 
mto the hands of Congress in the hope that it could be sold to 
settlers and the war debt paid. Any state leaving the union 
would lose its share of the vast amount of money that, it was 
thought, would be realized from this land. 

Six years after the surrender of Cornwallis, it was decided to 
hold a convention in Philadelphia " to form a more perfect union," 
and then it was that our Constitution was written. This was not 
an easy thing to do, for each state was guarding its 
own rights, and was afraid of having less power than 
the others. 

How to represent the people fairly was the hardest 
question. " A large state should have more represent- 
atives," said one. " A small state has its all at stake 
just the same as a large one," declared another. At 
last it was decided that each state, whether large or 
small, should choose two men to send to Congress, and 
so the Senate should be made up. Men should also be 
sent to form the House of Representatives, and the 
number of these sent from each state should depend 
upon the population of the state. 
How long the President should be in office was another hard 
question to decide. Some said one year. " That is not long enough 
for a man to accomplish anything," said one party. "Let us have 
it seven years." " A dishonest president would gain too much 




THE 1M!KSIDENT'S 
ARMCHAIR IS 
INDEPENDENCE 
HALL 



THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 



171 



The Su- 



power in seven years," the other party declared. Finally the term 

of four years was decided upon. It was also agreed that Congress Congress 

should make the laws, that the President should have power to 

oblige people to 

obey them, and 

that the Supreme 

Court, formed of 

judges chosen by 

the President, 

should settle all 

disputes about the 

meaning of the 

laws. 

There was much 
discussion about 
tliis Constitution inauguration of Washington 

in the different states, but at last all thirteen adopted it. Then 
each state chose electors, or men to vote for a president. Every The first 
one of the electors voted for Washington, and in 1789 he became "'"^^'"^"^ 
the first President of the United States. 




1789-1817. 

The first difficulty for the states to meet was the lack of money. 
The Continental Congress had never been able to pay what it The lack of 
borrowed, and no foreign nation would lend them a dollar. A wise 
man named Alexander Hamilton was made Secretary of the Trea- 
sury, and so it became his business to suggest to Congress the 
best way to manage the money affairs of the country. He said, 
"Let us tax all foreign goods brought into the United States 
for sale. This will make the price higher, of course, but it will 
^aeld revenue and will enable our manufacturers to make many 
thuigs that we now bring from Europe." Then he suggested, 



172 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




The cotton- 
gin is in- 
vented 



" Let us agree to pay all the money that the Continental Congress 
borrowed." His third suggestion was a little startling, for it was, 
" Let us promise to pay whatever each state borrowed." Finally 
Congress agreed. These suggestions of Hamil- 
ton's were very wise, for those whom the United 
States owed saw that if the government did not 
stand, they would never get their money, and 
every creditor became a friend to the new nation. 
Large amounts of money were soon to come 
into the country in a way that no one had 
thought of. A young man in Connecticut 
was asked to go to Georgia to teach the 
children of a rich planter. When he ar- 
rived, some one else had been engaged, and 
he was far from home and almost penniless. 
General Greene's widow had met him on the 
long journey south, and she invited liini to 
her home. In Georgia the cliief business 
was raising rice and indigo, though of late years planters had be- 
gun to sow cotton. Cotton had been brought 
from India before this, and the planters were 
sure of a high price for all that they could 
send to market. They had little to sell, how- 
ever, for the cotton clings fast to its small 
seeds, and all these had to be picked out be- 
fore it could be woven. One day a planter 
said to Mrs. Greene, " If we only had a ma- 
chine that would get these seeds out, we could 
all be rich." "Here is Mr. Whitney," she said. 
" He made me this embroidery frame, and if 
any one can make such a machine, I believe 
that he can." The result of the conversation was the invention 



ALEXANDER HAMILTON 
(From Trumbull's portrait in Boston) 




FLOWER AND BOLLS 
OF THE COTTOK FLANT 



THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 



173 



of the cotton-gin, with which a man conld clear at least fifty times 
as much cotton in a day as without it. 

Southern planters now began to raise much cotton. They Effect of 
did not weave it, but sold it and bought what- ^^^ ever they ^y"' 




cotton-ginon 
es and 



needed ; therefore they wanted duties 
The North raised no cotton, and a large 
share of the northern income came from 
manufactures ; therefore the North preferred 
high duties on goods that could be made in Amcricii. 

The cotton-gin encouraged negro slavery. 
Before this, many, even m the South, had 
felt that it would be good to" have no such 
thing as slavery, but now large numbers of 
workers Were needed, and it was thought 
that the negroes would not work unless they 
were slaves. If cotton was not plenty, the mills in the North 
would make less money, and, therefore, many Northerners were 
willing to have slavery flourish. 

John Adams became president in 1797. Before that time, 



low. slavery 




P>an('p dpo1ar(^(l war au'ainst 




England and wished the 

States to join her ; but our 
government refused to 
have anything to do with 
F]uropean disagreements. 
France was angry and 
)egan to destroy our ves- 
sels. The French minis- 
ter, Talleyrand, suggested 
that this would be stopped 
if the Americans would 
bribe some of the officials 
of the French government. 



United Trouble with 
France 



174 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Hail, 
Columbia 



Suppression 
of the Bar- 
bary pirates 



Then Charles Pmckney, who had been sent to France to repre- 
sent the United States, declared that his country had " millions 
for defense, but not one cent for tribute." These words were in 
every one's mouth, just as in the Revolution every one was say- 
ing, '' No taxation without representation." " America is not 
scared," wrote Adams. " France shall do as she pleases." The 
thought of another war made the union of the states stronger. 
This was when the words of "Hail, Columbia," were written, 
though the music had been composed several years before. The 
tune was called " The President's March," and was first played 
when Washington was going through Trenton on his 
way to New York to be inaugurated. Our 
small navy began to attack French vessels," 
and was so successful that France soon 
suggested that we should be friends. 

In Adams's administration, in the last 

month of 1799, Washington died. General 

Henry Lee pronounced the funeral oration, 

and then it was that Washington was called 

" First in war, first in peace, and first in the 

hearts of Ms countrymen." 

While Jefferson was president, there was 
trouble with Africa. For several hundred 
years the people living in the Barbary States 
in northern Africa had been accustomed to de- 
mand tribute from all vessels that came their way. If this tribute 
was not paid, they would seize the vessels. Any wealthy men 
that might be on board were kept for ransom, and the others 
were sold as slaves. These pirates were so fierce and savage and 
had so many vessels that the nations of Europe had paid them 
tribute rather than run the risk of losing their merchant ships. 
For the lack of warships, the United States did the same thing at 




BARBARY PIRATE VESSEL 



THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 



175 




CANNON CAl'TUKEU FROM THE 
BARBAKY STATES 



first, but very unwillingly. One officer, sent to pay the tribute. Suppression 
wrote home that he hoped he should never be sent to pay tribute bary pirates 
again unless he could deliver it from the mouth of a cannon. At 
last warships were sent against the Barbary States, and one of 
their chief cities was bombarded. Then the 
ruler thought it was time to ask for a treaty 
with the United States, and to cease meddling 
with American ships. 

About this time the United States suddenly 
became more than twice as large as it had 
been before. When the French and Indian War came to an end, 
the immense tract of land north of Texas and between the Mis- 
sissippi and the Rocky Mountains was given to Spain. After a 
while, France gained possession of it again. France owned also 
some land on the east of the Mississippi at its mouth ; and, there- 
fore, if she chose, she could prevent the Ameri- 
cans from using the river. Jefferson sent two Louisiana 
men to see whether Napoleon, emperor of France, °"''C"ase 
would sell New Orleans. Napoleon was 
about ready to make war upon England. 
He wanted money, and he did not want 
this land in America, for England could easily 
seize upon it. While the two envoys were 
thmking about New Orleans, he suddenly offered 
them the whole territory knoAvii as Louisiana at 
two and a half cents an acre. Such a bargain 
as this was not to be passed, and the land was 
bought. No one knew much about it, and 
some said not a settler would go there for 
MERIWETHER LEWIS ^ ccutury ; but the purchase would give the 
right to use the Mississippi, and it would prevent England from 
ever holding the land, so that most Americans were glad. 





176 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Exploration 
of the west- 
ern land 



The Em- 
bargo Act 



Causes of 
the War of 
1812 



Jefferson sent out a party at once to explore the new territory. 
The leaders were his secretary, Meriwether Lewis, and William 
Clark, whose brother George had saved the Northwestern Terri- 
tory for the Americans. They went up the Missouri, then made 
their way to a branch of the Columbia, and so down to the Pacific 



Ocean, which was, as their journal says, 




' more raging than pacific." 
The Columbia Kiver had 
been discovered more than 
a century before this by a 
Rhode Island captain, who 
gave it the name of liis 
vessel. 

Again the quarrels of 
Europe made trouble for 
A WARSHIP'S GUK-DECK IN 1800 thc United Statcs. France 

and England were at war. Napoleon gave notice that he should 
fire upon any vessel carrying goods to England ; and England 
declared that she should seize any vessel carrying goods to France 
or to any of the countries that were on the side of France. Con- 
gress believed that both France and England needed our goods 
so badly that if none made their way to either country, these 
declarations would be withdrawn, and so they made a law called 
the Embargo Act, forbidding any American vessel to leave port. 
People who depended upon commerce suffered greatly by this act. 
They spelled its name backwards and called it the 0-grab-me act. 
It hurt the United States much more than France or England 
had done, and before long it was repealed. 

Madison became president. He was a gentle, courteous, schol- 
arly man, but it was durmg his term of office that a second war 
with England was fought. One cause was the interference with 
our commerce. Another was England's claim that no English- 
man could become a citizen of any other country, and her 



THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 



[77 



exercising what was called the right of search. An EngHsh war- Right of 
ship meeting an American vessel would signal it to stop, and would ^^^^'^^ 
fire at it if the order was not obeyed. Then the English captain 
would take from the crew of the American ship all the men that 
he thought were Englishmen, even if they had become American 
citizens. If he needed sailors, he would not be particular to make 
sure that these men were of English birth. He would claim that 
no one could tell an American from an Englishman, and so he would 
carry off what men he chose, and force them to enter r^^h 

the British navy. The United States had long been "^ ^' 

indignant at this behavior of England, but had not 
been able to prevent it for want of an army. Eng- 
land was engaged in the war with France also, 
but she had a large and well- trained army and 
sixty times as many warships as the United 
States. Nevertheless, this country would bear 
no more, and war was declared. The 
contest is called the War of 1812. 

The first aim of the Americans 
was to conquer Canada, but they did 
not succeed. As the enemy ^^'ere 
invading the Northwestern Terri- 
tory, it began to be clear that the 
only way to keep them out was to 
gain possession of Lake Erie. A 
young naval officer named Ohver 
Hazard Perry was sent to Erie, Pennsylvania, to build a fleet. 

To keep English ships from sailing up the Saint Lawrence, the 
frigate Constitution under Captain Hull was sent at the beginning The Consti- 
of the war to cruise about the Gulf. One afternoon he caught the^uer- 
sight of the British frigate Guerriere, the ship of all sliips that he rifere 
was most eager to meet, for he had once been chased nearly three 




OLD IRONSIDES 

( Built in Boston, 1797, and now at tUe Charlestown 
Navy Yard J 



178 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

days by the Guerriere and the rest of her fleet, and he meant 
to have his revenge. The British captain was ready, for he 
was sure that he could capture any American vessels "with a 
bit of striped bunting at their mastheads," as he said scorn- 
fully. The fight was not half an hour long. The masts of the 
Guerriere were shot away, and her hull was riddled with cannon 
balls. There was nothing to do but to surrender. The wreck 
was not worth saving, and it was set afire. New England had 
not favored this war, but when Captain Hull appeared in Boston 
harbor, the city made ready to give him such a reception as she 
had never given to any man before. To sink an English frigate 
was enough to arouse the enthusiasm of tliis little nation with 
its navy of sixteen vessels. One city gave Hull and his officers 
swords, another presented silver plate. State dinners and decora- 
tions and cheering and illuminations and the waving of flags were 
everywhere. As for England, this victory was perhaps one of 
the greatest surprises that she had ever known, and she became 
more and more surprised as time passed. In the long war with 
France she had taken hundreds of ships and lost only five ; but 
in the first six months of this War of 1812 she "had had six naval 
battles, had lost six ships, and had not taken one." 

The Constitution won so many victories and was so little in- 
Old Iron- jured that the name "Old Ironsides" was given her. Twenty 
sides years afterwards the government decided that she was no longer 

seaworthy and must be broken up. Then Oliver Wendell Holmes 
wrote his famous poem, "Old Ironsides," beginning, "Ay, tear her 
tattered ensign down ! " and so many were eager to save the ship 
that it was repaired and sailed the ocean for many a year. It is 
now, more than a century old, in the ISTavy Yard at Charlestown, 
Massachusetts. It is kept in good repair, and will, perhaps, last 
another hundred years. 

Perry and his company of carpenters were at Erie, cuttmg down 




THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 179 

trees as fast as they could to build a fleet. There was no time to Perry's vic- 
wait for timber to season, and the ships were made from lumber ^^^^ on a e 
that was almost fresh from the forest. The one that he chose for 
his flagship was named the Lawrence, from a brave officer 
who had fallen in a sea fight a year earlier. The last words 
of Lawrence were, " Don't give up the ship ! " and this is 
what Perry put on his flag. The young captain had never 
seen a naval battle, but he went out boldly to meet the 
British fleet. Capturing a flagship is about the same on 
the water as taking the enemy's capital is on land; but 
even when Perry's flagship was shot so full of holes that 
she was ready to sink, he did not surrender. He and his twelve- 
year-old brother sprang into a boat with the eight sailors who 
still lived, and rowed to another ship of the fleet. There was a 
storm of bullets and cannon balls around them. More than one 
bullet went through the boy's cap, but they reached the vessel in 
safety. " Don't give up the ship ! " swung out from the masthead, 
and in less than ten minutes the British fleet surrendered. Perry 
sent a message to the government, " We have met the enemy and 
> — y ^2 ^ they are ours." This 

C A^ ha^^Qnt^M^ f>/?u^y^^ o^t^^ eHc>ou^.' victory cut the Brit- 
iurt, M^, ^ ^nxj^ c^nv ish off from further 
y . /' .. V mvasionoftheNorth- 






western Territory. 



^'^. t^ mu^ a^/,€c/^e>^ ^ftic^ The war was more 

<y serious than it other- The Indians 

(P^r^?%r-f ^ise would have been \^l ^^^ ^"8" 

COMMODORE PERRY'S MESSAGE bccaUSC tllC ludiaUS 
( By permission of Harper & Brothers) 



of Canada united 
with the EngUsh, and their chief went to Alabama to induce the 
red men there to fight against the Americans. The Indians were 
suppressed by two men who afterwards became presidents of the 



180 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The burning 
of Washing- 
ton 



Attack on 
Baltimore 



United States, General Harrison, who won victories in Canada, 
and General Jackson, who was successful in the South, 

When the war with France was over, England sent more sol- 
diers and more vessels. Suddenly word came to Washington that 
fifty l^ritish ships were at the mouth of the Potomac. The city 

had no fortifications and 
was helpless. The invaders 
swept into the town, burned 
the Capitol, and even the 
Congressional Library, and 
took possession of the White 
House, Dolly Madison, the 
President's wife, saved the 
Declaration of Independence 
and a valuable portrait of 
Washington. Tradition de- 
clares that, like a good house- 
keeper, she also carried away 
to safety her work-bag filled 
with silver spoons. To de- 
stroy Washington gave no 
military advantage. The 
British said it was done be- 
cause the Americans had burned Toronto. There was this differ- 
ence, however, in the two acts : Toronto was burned by soldiers 
acting without authority and the United States disapproved of 
the deed, while Washington was burned under strict orders from 
the British government. Americans may well be ashamed of the 
destruction of Toronto, but they have no such act of barbarism 
to regret as burning a national library. 

The British ships next appeared before Baltimore. All day the 
cannon thundered. On board one of the ships was an American 




DOLLY MADISOK 

(From a miniature) 



THE YEARS OF WEAKNESS 



181 



NewOrleans 



prisoner, Francis Scott Key. The cannonading went on through The Star- 
the night. He watched anxiously every " rocket's red glare," lest |P^"gl^'i 
he should see that the American flag had been lowered. Dawn 
came, and the flag still floated. In his relief and joy, he wrote 
"The Star-Spangled Banner." It was printed at once; the air 
was a familiar one, and soon the song was sung from one end of 
the country to the other. 

After more than two years of fighting, England planned to 
make a fierce attack upon New Orleans and so gain control of the The battle of 
Mississippi. General Jackson was sent to defend the city, and 
wherever he went something was usually accomplished. The 
American troops had had little experience, and they were only half 
as many as their enemies. The British soldiers were veterans, but 
their knapsacks, muskets, etc., were far too heavy for rapid move- 
ment. Both sides fought bravely, but the English were terribly 
defeated. 

One especially sad fact about this battle, with its great loss of 
life, is that it was fought in January, 
1815, two weeks after the treaty 
of peace was signed. The only 
way for news to come from «^rt-'\,. 
England to America was s^^^v. ^^ 
by sailing vessel, and there -- 
were few that even with 
fair winds could cross the 
ocean in less than a month. 
This treaty said not one .ukt .khlmu, balhmc.ke 

word about any rights of t where " the Star-Spangled Banner " of the song waved) 

the Americans to buy and sell as they chose and did not mention The treaty 
the right of search, but after this, England never again attempted ° ^ 
to interfere with American commerce or to search an American 
vessel. Before this war the United States had been looked upon 



^ 



4^-? 




182 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

as a few millions of people who had banded together to free 
themselves from England. After the war it was seen that the 
United States was a nation, able to defend its rights, and to hold 
an honorable place among the nations of the world. 

SUIkOIARY. 

After the Revolution eacli colony thought only of its own gain. Congress 

had no power to enforce its laws. The chief thing in which all the 

states had a common interest was the Northwestern Territory. 
A convention held in Philadelphia drew up the Constitution, which gave 

Congress the power to make laws, the President the power to enforce 

them, and the Supreme Court the power to interpret them. 
In 1789 Washington became the first president of the United States. 
The government obtained money by duties on imports, and friends by 

assuming the Revolutionary debts of the colonies. 
The invention of the cotton-gin resulted in an increase in the production 

of cotton, which caused disagreement between the North and the South 

about duties, and encouraged negro slavery. 
Our vessels were attacked by the Fi'ench because of our refusal to aid them 

in a war against England. After we had captured many French vessels, 

France made peace. 
In 1799 Washington died. 

The Barbary pirates were suppressed by our warships. 
The United States bought of France the land between the Mississippi and 

the Rocky Moimtains, which was soon explored by Lewis and Clark. 
The Embargo Act was passed in retaliation for the declarations of France 

and England which injured our commerce. 
The War of 1812 was caused by England's interference with our commerce, 

and by her searching our ships and seizing om- sailors. 
American attacks on Canada failed ; but American victories on Lake Erie 

and elsewhere kept the British out of our Northwestern Territory. 
Our ships won many victories on the ocean. 
The British burned Washington, but were defeated at New Orleans after 

peace had been made. 



WESTWARD GROWTH 183 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A sailor describes the search of an American vessel by the British. 
Perry's brother describes the victory of Lake Erie. 



XIX 
THE WESTWARD GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY 

1817-1841. 

James Monroe was the next president. Soon after he was m- 
augurated he made a tour of the country to see the forts and navy 
yards. Traveling was easier than 

when Washington had to ride on i i 

horseback from JSTew York to Boston, ' | 

for a man named Robert Fulton had 
invented the steamboat. Steamers 
were already on the rivers and the 
Great Lakes, and before Monroe's 
term of office was over, Georgia sent 
one to Europe. Monroe had a joyful 
reception wherever he went. He wore 

the blue and buff uniform and the fulton-s steamer, the clermont 

cocked hat of the Revolution. The old soldiers remembered that The " era ot 
he had been one of them and gave him a comrade's greeting. p°°,. 
One of the Boston papers called the times the " era of good feel- 
ing," and that described the condition of things so Avell that the 
phrase went throughout the country. 

In the southeastern corner of the land there was trouble. The 
Creek Indians of Alabama had sided with the British in the War Trouble with 
of 1812, because they felt that the Americans were driving them poles '"'" 
away from their lands. They expected the British to secure the 




184 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Monroe 
doctrine 



land for them, and when this was not done, they were more mdig- 

nant than ever. In Florida there were Seminoles, negro slaves 

who had escaped from their masters in Georgia, Spaniards, and a 

few English, all of whom were willing to unite with the 

Creeks against the Americans, 

Monroe sent General Jackson to subdue them, and 
he succeeded ; but Congress was a little startled when 
it was known that he had paid no attention to the fact 
that Florida was Spanish soil, and that among 
the men whom he punished were both Spaniards 
and English. There might have been trouble 
if Spain had not been in need of money. The 
•esult was that she sold Florida to the United 
States. Our country then owned every foot of 
what is now United States territory east of 
the Mississippi. West of that river the vast 
tract called Louisiana was United States soil. 
Spain still owned what is now Texas and 
Mexico, but she agreed to give up all claim 
to the "Oregon Territory," which was the 
land north of California. 

There was much talk about the Pacific coast just then, for 
Russia had taken possession of the land which we now call Alaska, 
and had begun to build trading-posts along the California coast. 
Other nations of Europe were looking for new territory in South 
America. Then it was that the President announced what is now 
called the " Monroe doctrine." It was that European nations could 
not acquire new territory in either North or South America, and 
that the United States would not permit any European country 
to " interfere with any independent American government." 

The Americans were no longer confined to a little strip of land 
along the coast. There were twenty-two states, and two others 




OSCEOLA, CHIEF OF THE 
SEMINOLES 



WESTWARD GROWTH 



185 



were asking to be admitted. Tlie new states had been settled Going West 
chiefly by colonists from the older ones. There were no railroads, 
and the only way for a family to " go West " by land was by wagon 
or on foot. The wagon most often used was called a prairie 
schooner. It was long and low, and was covered with white 
canvas drawn over great wooden hoops. The emigrants would 
tide slowly on day after day, cooking their meals in gypsy fashion 
over out-of-door fires, and sleeping in the wagon. They would 
pick out a good piece of land, build a log house, cut down the 
trees, plant corn and potatoes, raise sheep and cattle, spin, weave ; 
and, if all went well, they 
would have a comfortable 
home, where the family 
would at least be sure of 
enough to eat and to wear. 
The emigrant would, of 
course, be wise enough to 
select land that was near 
a river, so that as soon as 
he had any produce to 
sell, it could be taken 
to a market and ex- 
changed for things that 
he could not make. 
Other settlers would come, perhaps a village would grow up 
around his house ; and he might become a rich man. 

This is what every emigrant hoped, and it is no wonder that so 
many went to the " far West," which then meant states no farther Numbers of 
aw^ay than Ohio or Tennessee. One man in Pennsylvania re- grants 
ported that two hundred and thirty-six prairie schooners went 
through his town in a single month. Some of the emigrants had 
set out bravely on foot to find the happy land where the poorest 




EMIGRANTS GOING WEST 
ACROSS THE PRAIRIES 



186 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



MZI 




had enough. One man and his wife were seen in Pennsylvania 
on their way to Indiana, having ah-eady walked from Maine. 
They had a httle handcart, in which were all of their possessions, 
and as many of their six children as were too young to make the 
journey on foot.^ 

These people came from all parts of the country, and an im- 
portant question was arising because of 
the new settlements. Should slav- 
ery be allowed in the newly opened 
territory? The Xorth said 
,^ " No," not only because many 
t r? were beginning to tliink slav- 
ery wrong, but because if there 
were more slave states than 
free states, their representa- 
tives in Congress would vote 
against duties, and this would* 
hurt the northern manufac- 
turers. The South said "Yes,'" 
fearmg that if there were more 
McMaster's History of the People of the United States. 




*J.*»^' 



CLAY'S BIRTHPLACE, HANOVER COUNTY 
VIRGINIA 



WESTWARD GROWTH 187 

free states, slavery might be interfered with. She hoped also to The Mis- 
gain representatives enough to abolish duties on imported goods, promise '^' 
Maine asked to be admitted as a state, but the South said, " No, 
we will not have another free state." Missouri made the same 
request, but the North said, " No, we will not have 
another slave state." Finally Henry Clay, " the great 
peacemaker," persuaded Congress to admit both 
states on condition that there should never be an- 
other slave state north of the southern boundary of 
Missouri, that is, 36° 30'. This act was called the 
Missouri Compromise. People felt relieved and glad. 
" There will be no more trouble about slavery," they 
said. 

In 1824, four years after the Missouri Compromise, 
the IJnited States "had company." Lafayette was 
invited to visit the country as the guest of the whole 
nation. Such rejoicings as there were, and such 
welcomes, not only from the old soldiers who 
had fought under " the boy," but from 
every one who loved his country and appre- 
ciated the help that Lafayette had given so 
generously to win its freedom. He visited 
each one of the twenty-four states, and 
was greeted everywhere as the friend of uunklk iiij,l mom -mi m 

the nation. From each railroad train that comes into Boston from Lafayette's 
the north the tall gray stone monument that stands on Bunker ^'^' 
Hill may be seen. Its corner-stone was laid by Lafayette, June 
17, 1825, just fifty years after the battle, and many veterans were 
present who, as young men, had stood on that hill waiting to " see 
the whites of their eyes." 

When Lafayette was ready to return to France, Congress gave 
him a generous sum of money and more than one half as much 





188 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



km:"- 



QPP 



The fiftieth 
Fourth of 
July 



Death of 
Adams and 
Jefferson 



land as there is in the District of Cohimbia. A new frigate was 
named the Brandywine in honor of the battle in which he was 
wounded, and this was sent to the mouth of the Potomac to carry 

him across the ocean. 

John Quincy Adams became 
president in 1825. Whei 
July 4, 1826, drew near 
great preparations 
were made through- 
out the land to cele- 
brate the fiftieth 
anniversary of the 
signing of the De- 
claration of Inde- 
pendence. There 
were speeches and 
cheers and music. Guns 
f were fired and bells were rung. When 

night came, the country was ablaze with 
bonfires and illuminations. The use of gas was 
beginning to be common in some of the large cities, and its light 
was so much brighter than that given by candles and whale- 
oil lamps that it was looked upon as a marvel. Audiences would 
gaze with wonder and delight when the gas in a theatre or con- 
cert hall was suddenly turned up. 

The whole land was jubilant, but a few days later word came 
that on July 4, while the country was happy in its celebration 
of independence, two men who had done much to win that inde- 
pendence had died. They were Thomas Jefferson in Virginia 
and John Adams in Massachusetts. Grief took the place of joy, 
and black drapings were hung where such a little while before 
there had been only brightness. 




STAGE-COACH 



WESTWARD GROWTH 



189 



To-day the death of a famous man would be flashed over the Slow travel- 
world in a few minutes, but seventy-five years ago news traveled '"^ 
slowly, for there were no steam railroads and no telegraph. The 
only way that a message could be carried from New York to 
Pittsburg, for instance, was by 
a man on horseback or by stage- 
coach. When the people in 
Ohio wished to send their pro- 
duce to market, they usually 
carried it in wagons to Pitts- 
burg, and then it went by boat 
down the Ohio and the Missis- 
sippi to New Orleans. Goods 
sent from New York to south- 
ern Ohio had to be carried by wagon across Pennsylvania, or else 
by boat up the Hudson and the Mohawk, across Lake Ontario 
and a part of Lake Erie, and then down the Alleghany to Pitts- 
burg.^ The part of this journey that could not be made by water 
was made m great wagons or ox-carts. 

New York and the other Eastern cities knew that there must 




AN OLD-l'A!iHIO>EU CHAI 




FREIGHT WAGON 
(From an old freight bill) 



be a cheaper way to carry goods to the West, or else the new states The Erie 
would make all their purchases in New Orleans and bring them 
1 McMaster's Uistory of the People of the United States. 



190 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Opening of 
the canal 



up the Mississippi in steamboats. It was proposed to dig a canal 
from Albany to Buffalo. There was no dynamite for heavy blast- 
ing and no steam machinery for digging. Every pound of dirt 
must be lifted by a man with a shovel. It was a great under- 
taking. Governor Clinton of New York was much interested in 
its success, and the people who did not believe in the canal called it 
" Clinton's big ditch." " How shall you get back the millions that 
it will cost ? " one asked. " We wiU tax 
every boat that goes through it," 
Clinton answered. " You '11 have 
nothing but mud for your 
pains," another grumbled ; 
-*^- ■' but Governor Clin- 
ton kept bravely 
at work, and after 
eight long years 
the " big ditch " 
was done. 
™t{^ ^ ^^ ^ ^' There was a 

great celebration 
in Buffalo, and the 
Erie Canal was for- 
mally declared to 
be open. A cannon was fired, then another five miles farther down 
the canal, and so on all the way to New York city. Probably no 
news had ever before traveled five hundred miles so rapidly. Gov- 
ernor Clinton and others went on board some canal boats, fresh 
and new, and made gay with flags and streamers. Horses walking 
the " tow-path " towed the boats along to Albany. Then they went 
down the Hudson to New York city and out into the bay. Two 
kegs of water, brought from Lake Erie, were poured into the sea 
to show that Lake Erie and New York Bay were united. 





A CANAL SHOWING HORSES, TOW-BUAXS, AND LOCKk 



WESTWARD GROWTH 



191 




KEG BROUGHT 
THROUGH THIi 
KKIE (JANAL 



railroads 



The canal was used so much that even the first year the tolls Enthusiasm 
paid nearly twice the interest. Freight grew cheaper each year, JuUdSg^' 
and it was not long before one dollar would carry 
as much weight from Albany to Buffalo as fifteen 
had formerly done. Towns were soon built all along 
the canal. Other canals were dug, and each one of 
them made it possible for new towns to be built 
and new manufactures to be engaged hi. There 
was such enthusiasm over canals that some people 
declared it would not be long before there would 
be a waterway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
Canal boats were cheap and safe, but their speed was only four 
miles an hour, and people began to question whether it would not The early 
be better to build railroads. The idea of a railroad was not new. 
Wooden rails had been laid in several places to carry stone or 
earth, and wagons had been dragged on these rails by horses; 
but the use of steam locomotives on railroads we owe to an Eng- 
lishman named George Stephenson. He tried for a 
long time before any one would believe m hi^ 
invention. People laughed at 
it just as they had laughed 
at the "big ditch." "What 
should you do, Mr. Stephen- 
son," asked one man, "if your 
engine was going at full speed 

and a cow got in front of it ? " " It would be very bad for the 
cow," said the inventor gravely. The new engines were tried in 
America. They went- very well on level ground, but they could 
not climb a hill that was at all steep. The road must either go 
around the hill, or else there must be machinery at the top to pull 
the cars up by ropes. The speed was not so very much greater 
than that of a steamboat. The rails were of wood with strips 




192 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Who shall 
pay? 



Jackson and 
the spoils 
system 



of iron on top. The passenger cars looked almost exactly like 
stage-coaches, and part of the passengers had to ride backwards. 
Improvements came rapidly. Every year the trains went a Uttle 
faster, the roadbeds, rails, and locomotives were a little better. 
It was easier for people to go about the country. They learned 
new ways of doing tilings. They saw new sights and thought 
new thoughts. 

Men had to think new thoughts in those days, for several diffi- 
cult problems were coming up to be solved. There were the two 
old ones, about slavery and about duties, and there was a new 
one, " Who shall pay for these canals and railroads ? " The South 
said, " Let each state pay for its own ; " the 
North said, " They are for the gain of the 
whole country, and therefore the whole 
country should pay for them," 

When it was time to elect a new presi- 
dent, Andrew Jackson, the sturdy old In- 
dian fighter, was chosen. He was a straight- 
forward, upright man, with a frank, cordial 
manner. He liked to please people and to 
do everythmg in the simplest way. His 
good-heartedness led him to do one deed 
that was an injury to the country. Reso- 
ANDiiEw JACKSON lutc as hc was, it was always hard for him to 

refuse a friend's request. When he became president, every one 
who had the least clami upon him begged for some position in the 
government employ, and he could not say No. The only way to 
find positions enough was to turn out the men who were then m 
office. This fashion of favoring one's friends is called the " spoils 
system" from a remark made in jest that "to the victor belong 
the spoils." 

The hardest question that Jackson had to meet was in regard 




WESTWARD GROWTH 



193 




W Li;.--lLi; j.LUvl>u ill- lA.MuUS Sl'EECH 
(From tiie painting by Healy in Faiieuil Hall, Boston) 



to what was called "nullification," or making of no force. Con- Nullification 
gress voted to impose duties large enough to make imported 
goods cost more than those made in the United States. South 
Carolina said, " This is an unjust law, for it makes us poor while 
it makes the northern manufacturers rich. It is right for us to 
refuse to obey it, and therefore we shall nullify the act." This 
statement was made in the Senate. Daniel Webster replied in 
the famous speech that closes, " Liberty and Union, now and for- 
ever, one and inseparable." President Jackson did not like the 
large duties, but he meant that the laws of the land should be 
obeyed, and he sent forces to South Carolina to see that the 
duties were collected. Soon after this, Henry Clay, the "great 
peacemaker," persuaded Congress to lessen the duties, and there 
was no outbreak. 

If a government is strong, and people feel safe and have time 
to devote to education, books are sure to be \ATitten. In the colo- 



194 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Our first nial days few books were written in America whose reading still 
can^wdter "' gives pleasure. Even after the Union was formed, people across 
the ocean used to say with a smile, " Not even the Americans 
read the American books ; " but before Jackson's time three Amer- 
ican writers became known whose works were read with pleasure 
on both sides of the Atlantic. They were Irving, Cooper, and 
Bryant. One great difference between their writings and those 
of most of the American authors that had come before them was 
that they did not try to imitate English writers. When Bryant 
described a landscape, he put in American flowers and trees and 
; c- l)irds ; wliile the American poets before him 
wi've inclined to put in larks and night- 
ingales and primroses and "crimson- 
tipped " daisies, without stopping to 
tlnnk whether these birds and flowers 
could be found in America. Cooper 
had little to say about lords and 
princes ; he liked best to write 
i about the Indians of liis own land. 
p # bo it was mth Irving. When he 
wrote "Rip Van Winkle," he did 
not make his hero live in some old 
a New York village; and Rip's strange 
adventures all took place on the New York mountains. 

In 1837 Jackson's term of office was over. He was the last 
President that had had anything to do with the Revolutionary 
AYar. Not one man was living who had signed the Declaration 
of Independence. The men who had made the country were 
dead, and the land was left in the hands of those that had come 
after them. 

When Van Buren's name is mentioned, the first thought that 
comes to mind is " hard times," that is, times when no one seemed 




BRYANT'S HOME AT ROSLYN 

English castle, but in 



Close of 

Jackson's 

term 



WESTWARD GROWTH 195 

to have money to pay his debts. The government had received Martin Van 
for pubUc lands and duties many milhon dollars more than it '^"''^" 
needed to use, and had deposited the money in various banks. 
These banks had loaned it to speculators, and to men who wished 
to build railroads or canals or to buy western lands. Suddenly 
the government decided to divide this money among the states. 
and ordered the banks to return it. The banks called upon the 
speculators and others to bring it back. 

To do this at once was often difficult or impossible; for in- 
stance, men who had borrowed money to buy land where they Hard times 
expected a railroad would be built could not sell their land at a 
fair price till the road was completed, and had no money mth 
which to pay the banks. Another trouble was that the govern- 
ment had declared that men who bought western land must pay 
for it in gold or silver ; and, therefore, much coin had gone West. 
The banks united, and said that for the present they would not 
give coin for their bills, and they would make no new loans. No 
one knew what to-morrow's value of the paper money, or " rag 
money," as it was called, would be. Every one wanted coin, and 
whoever had any coin held on to it. Business firms failed, banks 
failed, mills stopped, work stopped, poverty and suffering were 
everywhere. The acts that caused the trouble came before Van 
Buren's term of office, but as the trouble itself appeared while he 
was president, it was always associated with his name. 

After a while the money difficulties passed away, but there was 
another difficulty that was growing worse all the time, and that Anti-slavery 
was the difference of opinion about slavery. Anti-slavery socie- ^^'^'^^'^^ 
ties were formed in the North. Wilham Lloyd Garrison had for 
several years been publishing a paper called the "Liberator," 
whose object was to arouse people to do away with slavery, " It 
is wrong," said these societies, "for one man to hold another as 
his slave." "It is right," said the South, "for us to hold the 



196 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

negro. He is happier and better cared for than he would be as 
a free man." The societies sent pictures and pamphlets through- 
out the land to persuade people that slavery was wrong. The 
South declared that these papers would make the slaves rebel, 
and demanded that the government should forbid such acts in 
order to prevent the danger of a slave insurrection. 

Not all northerners sympathized with the anti-slavery societies 
Differences by any means. Probably most men in the North thought that it 
the^ North '" would be better if there were no such thing as slavery, but many 
believed that each state had the right to do as it chose m the 
matter, and some who would have done anytliing m their power 
to keep slavery out of a new state thought that no one had a 
right to interfere where it already existed. Anti-slavery papers 
were sometimes taken from the mails and destroyed. A hall in 
which an anti-slavery meeting had been held was burned, and the 
offices of the "Liberator " and other publications of the sort were 
raided. 

SUMMARY. 

During Monroe's term of ofRce, the Semiuoles were snbdued, Florida was 
acquired, Spain gave up all claim to the Oregon Territory, and the 
Monroe doctrine was proclaimed. Emigration to the West increased, 
and the Missouri Compromise postponed the slavery trouble. Lafay- 
ette became the guest of the nation. 

While John Quincy Adams was president, the fiftieth birthday of the 
nation was celebrated. Jefferson and John Adams both died on the 
day of the celebration. 

The success of the Erie Canal brought about tlie building of many other 
canals and railroads, which made new towns and manufactures possible. 

Jackson's enforcement of the law and a decreased tariff prevented nullifica- 
tion in South Carolina. 

Irving, Cooper, and Bryant wrote the first great American books. 

Van Buren's administration was marked by hard times and by increasing 
difference of opinion about slavery. 



TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 197 



SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 



Fulton's difficulties in making the first steamboat. 
Governor Clinton tells why he favors the Erie Canal. 
A ride on one of the early railroads. 



XX 

TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 

People suffered so much while Van Buren was in office that, 
although he was not to blame for their misfortunes, they wished Harrison 
to have a man who belonged to another political party. Wilham ^ 
Henry Harrison was chosen president and John Tyler vice- 
president. Harrison was a brave, faithful, upright man, who had 
always done his best and could be trusted to do well whatever 
he undertook. Just before the War of 1812, he had subdued the 
Indians at Tippecanoe in Indiana, and before the election took 
place his friends used to sing an absurd song, which ran : — 

"Oh, what has caused this great commotion 

Our country through? 
It is the ball that 's rolling on 

For Tippecanoe and Tyler, too ; 
And with them we '11 beat little Van, Van, Van ! 

Van ! oh, he 's a used-up man, 
And with them we '11 beat little Van ! " 

Perhaps what helped Harrison most was a remark made by 
a newspaper that was opposed to him. It was that Harrison The "log- 
would feel more at home in a log cabin than in the White House, date""^^" 
" That is just what we want," said his friends. " A man who can 
I'iVe in a log cabin, plough his own field, and build his own 



198 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Tyler 

succeeds 

Harrison 



The Lone 
Star State 



house — he's the man for us." Pictures of log cabins appeared 

on flags and medals. Real 
ones were drawn in the torch- 
light processions by stout 
horses or oxen. Mammoth 
log cabins were built for the 
meetings held by Harrison's 
friends, and the "log-cabin 
candidate " was elected. 

Just one month after Har- 
rison was inaugurated he 
died, and John Tyler took his 
place. The chief subject about 
which people were talking was 
the annexation of Texas. The 
land southwest of the United 
States which formerly be- 
longed to Spain had become 
free and taken the name of 
Mexico. Mexico was willing that settlers from other nations 
should form colonies on her soil, and it came to pass that more 
than twenty thousand people from the United States settled on 
the land between the Red River and the Gulf 
of Mexico, called Texas. After a while the de- 
mands of the Mexican government became too 
severe to please the Texan- Americans. Just as 
Mexico had fought herself free from Spain, so 
Texas fought herself free from Mexico. She 
then asked to become a state, but for several seal of texas 
years her request was not granted, and she was a state alone by 
herself. This is why Texas is called the "Lone Star State." 
There were various reasons why people wished or did not wish 



"^\Vi 


^SlM' 




i^^BlliijlL 


^^^^^^M 


^^mnUw 






" ^ ' 


^^^^ 


^^^^B 




^^^^ 



PICTURE FROM THE HARIilSGN CAMPAIGN 
ALMANAC 




ions 



TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 199 

to have Texas admitted, but the most important one was the ques- The admis- 
tion of slavery. Texas held slaves, and if it became a state, the jg "3°^ 
slave states would gain in power because they would have more 
votes in Congress. There was a long discussion in Congress, but 
finally the state was admitted. The South was trhimphant; 
but the abolitionists, as those were called who wished to abolish 
slavery, set to work with more energy than ever. 

People were not thinking about slavery alone. Many a man was 
at work on some invention that would be a gain to the country. Great inven- 
The sewing machine had been invented long before, but it was a 
clumsy affair. Elias Howe succeeded in making machines that 
were practical. Rubber shoes had been used, but they were thick 
and heavy and they had a fashion of melting when they were left 
in a Avarm place. Charles Goodyear found a way to vulcanize the 
rubber so it would not melt. "" Daguerreotypes " of buildings had 
been taken, but now a way was found to take pictures of persons. 
A vast amount of suffering was prevented by the discovery that 
by inhaling sulphuric ether the most severe opera- 
tion would be painless. Samuel F. B. Morse worked 
for many years to find out the way to send mes- 
sages by electricity. Even after he was sure that 
he could do it, so few believed in liim that it was a 
long time before he could persuade Congress to give 

,. ,, ii-iiT c ,. ^ i,Ai A TELEGRAPH SOUNDER 

him the money to build a line of telegraph. At 

last the line was built, and the reverent message, "AVhat hath The first 

God wrought ! " was sent from Washington to Baltimore. *^ ^^^^^ 

" Telegraph " means " far- writing," and it was a great mystery 
liow writing could be done so far from where the message was 
given. Some did. not believe any news that the telegraph brought 
until letters had come to prove that it was true. Some believed 
that the wonderful invention could not only carry the news, but 
collect it, and it is said that one woman objected to having a tele- 




200 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



graph pole set up near her house because, as she declared, she 
did not want people all over the country to know what she was 
doing. 
While Tyler was in office, there was much discussion about 
The Oregon what was called the Oregon Territory, that is, the land that now 
erntory forms Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and parts of Wyoming and 
Montana, and extends as far north as Alaska. A Rhode Islander 
had discovered its chief river, the Columbia; a Virginian had 
explored the stream ; and a New Yorker had sent out a colony. 
England, too, claimed the land, and for many years the two coun- 
tries had held it m common. 

The southern limit of Alaska is latitude 54° 40', and when it 
was time to elect a new president, one of the political par- 
ties took for a campaign cry, "Fifty-four forty or fight." 
The candidate of this party, James K. Polk, was chosen 
president. When he was elected, he declared, " One thing 
that must be done while I am in office is to settle the 
Oregon boundary." In his inaugural address he said that 
tlie title of the United States to Oregon was clear, that emi- 
; rants were going from the east to the extreme west, and 
that the government ought to protect them and their 
interests. A little later he urged that an overland mail 
should be established to go to Oregon at least once a 

month. 
^^' Only a few years earlier it had been /a disputed 
question whether it was possible to cross the moun- 
tains in wagons, and whether the Oregon country 
was worth the effort. Few had thought that much 
of it was of any value. In Congress a senator had 
declared, "For agricultural purposes I would not 
give a pinch of snuff for the whole Oregon Territory." The pre- 
sident's address did much to increase the number of emigrants. 




MONUMKNT AT CHAMPOEG, 
OREGOK 

(To commemorate the organiza- 
tion there on May 2, 184'?, of 
tlie first American government 
on the Pacifle coast) 



TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 



201 



The trains of cattle drawing wagons loaded with furniture, tools, 
food, and clothing grew longer and more frequent. Many of these 
trains went to Oregon, It was a long journey ; it took six months 
to go from the Missouri to the Willamette, but the very fact that 
it was farther from the east than any other part of the country to 
wliich emigrants had begun to go was one reason why so many 
went, for some people had the feeling that the farther they trav- 
eled, the more successful they would be. 

The number of emigrants increased so that it grew more 
and more important to both England and the United States 
that the boundary line should be settled. Both countries were 
finding out that a part, at least, of the Territory was a rich, 
fertile land; but after all, the chief thing desired by each 
country was to get possession of the Columbia River and the 
inlet south of Vancouver Island. President Polk made it clear 
that this country would not give up any territory south of 49°. 
There was great excitement, and again the cry was heard, 
" Fifty-four forty or fight." After much discussion England 
offered to surrender all claim to the mainland south of 49'". 
This was agreed to, and our northern boundary, at 49°, was 
then completed. From the Lake of the Woods to the Pacific, 
it was marked by iron pillars placed one mile apart, and by 
piles of stones. 

Although there was no fighting with England, the United States 
did have a war while Polk was in ofiice, and it came about because The Mexican 
of the " Lone Star State," for Texas had at last been admitted to 
the Union, The Texans claimed the Rio Grande as their western 
boundary, but Mexico declared that the new state extended only 
to the Nueces, It was because of that strip of land, one Imndred 
miles wide, lying between the two rivers, that the war took place. 

General Zachary Taylor was sent to the banks of the Rio 
Grande to defend the American claims. The story is told tliat 




A MEXICAN BOY 



War 



202 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Campaigns 
of the war 



Acquire- 
mentof new 
territory 



before the fighting began the Mexican leader said to one of the 
American officers, " If General Taylor will surrender, I can pro- 
mise him good treatment." " General Taylor never surrenders," 
said the officer indignantly, and that speech became the watch- 
word of the campaign. In these Mex- 
ican battles many a man fought whose 
name was to become familiar a few 
years later. Among these men were 
V. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and Jeffer- 
son Davis. General Taylor was uni- 
formly successful along the Rio 
Grande. One division of the Amer- 
ican forces conquered California, and 
another marched from eastern Kansas 
to California, capturing Santa Fe by 
the Avay. Finally General Winfield 
Scott made a wonderful march from 
Vera Cruz through the enemy's coun- 
try to the city of Mexico. The city 
was captured, and the war was ended. 
One condition of peace was that 
Mexico should sell to the United States California and the land of 
which Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and part of Wyoming, Colorado, 
and New Mexico have been formed. Americpi laws and customs 
were introduced at once into the new territory, and little attention 
was paid to the mshes of the people who were living on the land. 
Even if there had been no question that all American laws were 
better than Mexican laws, these changes were made so suddenly 
and so harslily that they brought about much suffering. Mrs. 
Jackson's story of " Ramona " was written to picture the life of the 
Mexicans at the first coming of the Americans into the territory. 
Part of this land was California. It was known to have a 




DISl'UTKK 11 Kl.lluin 
ilbXItAN \\ AK 



TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 203 

delightful climate and a fertile soil. After a while it was dis- ^^^^ ^\^: 

covered in 
covered that bits of gold were to be found in the beds of gravel California 

on the hills and in the valleys. A man could fill a pan with 

earth, pour on water, wash the gravel over the top of the pan, 

and find in the bottom grains of shining gold. 

When the report of this discovery reached the East, there was 
a wild rush for the " Golden State." Some sailed aroimd Cape The " Forty. 
Horn, some risked the deadly fevers of the Isthmus of Panama, 
others went across the country, m " prairie schooners," in ox- 
carts, on horseback, or even on foot. The overland route was 
marked not only by goods that had been thrown away when the 
horses became too weak to carry them farther, but by skeletons 
of horses and cattle, and by the headboards 
of hastily made graves. It was 1S49 

when these first gold- seekers went. J'^C 

and they called themselves the ^'' 

" Forty-niners." 

While the Forty-niners were ^>^_ 
hurrying to CaUfornia, Zachary 5 -■ 

Taylor, who " never surren- '" ' " ' - ~ 

dered," was chosen president. 's^ji-^ 

In a few months he died in office, 
and Millard Fillmore, the Vice- ^p^,^ 
President, took his place. Fill- "^^^iSKr-'^'' .^■^^'<hfr- 
more was followed by Frankhn ^^^; i,iiANcisco i 

Pierce, and after him came James '• ^'^'^"^ *° eugraving pubiisueu m isio^ 

Buchanan. During the terms of office of these presidents the 
laws in which people were most interested all dealt with slavery. 

The first one came about because so many Forty-niners went to 
California that one year later the territory asked to come in as a 
free state. Much of California was south of 36° 30', and there 
was the same discussion that there had been in 1820 when Mis- 



204 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

souri wished to come in as a slave state, but in 1850 it was even 
The compro- more bitter. In 1820 "the great peace-maker," Henry Clay, had 
miseof 850 p^.^jpQgg^j ^j^^g Missouri Compromise, and now in 1850 he brought 
forward another compromise. " To please the North," he said, 
"let us admit California as a free state. To satisfy the South, 
let us pass a new fugitive slave law, and decree that if a slave 
escapes to a free state the United States government shall seize 
him and return him to his master." The third proposal that he 
made was, "Let us agree that the rest of the land which was 
bought from Mexico shall be free or slave territory, just as the 
people who may live there shall decide." Men who settled upon 
land to which they had no title were sometimes called "squatters," 
and this law allowing the settlers to decide whether slavery should 
exist in their territory was spoken of as " squatter sovereignty." 

The compromise was agreed upon, and California was admitted. 
Daniel Webster and many others who did not believe in slavery 
The under- voted for this law, because they feared that the country would be 
%IT^^^^^' divided if they refused. The slaveholder said, "This negro is 
my property. I paid for him, and I have a riglit to claim him 
wherever I can find him ; " but when a negro who had made his 
escape appeared before the door of a man who believed that 
slavery was wrong, that man was much inclined to help the fugi- 
tive, even if the government did order t^at he should be given up. 
Anti-slavery men would hide these runaway slaves, and pass them 
on from one to another, concealed in all sorts of ways, until they 
were safe in Canada. This system was so secret and so success- 
ful that it was spoken of as the " underground railroad." 

People were talking of slavery more than anything else, and 

Uncle Tom's into the midst of the discussion came Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's 

^ Cabin," painting the life of the slave in the darkest colors. The 

North believed that it was a truthful picture and opposed slavery 

more than ever. 



TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 205 

The Missouri Compromise declared that all territory north of Bleeding 
36° 30' should be free; but now, influenced by the friends of 
■'squatter sovereignty," Congress voted that, although Kansas 
and Nebraska were north of the line, yet when they wished to 
come in as states, they might be free or slaveholding, as they 
chose. Then there was a struggle to win the new territories. 
Settlers from the slave states round about pressed into Kansas. 
Anti-slavery men in the North became colonists or gave money to 
help to send others. Both i^arties were sure that they were in 
the right ; both were eager and excited. There were battles be- 
tween them, and for several years there was so much bloodshed 
in the territory that it was called " bleeding Kansas." In a battle 
at Osawatomie, one of the fighters was John Brown, of Connecti- 
cut, who fought so fiercely that he was afterwards often called 
" Osawatomie Brown." The one aim of his life was, as he said, to 
wage " eternal war mth slavery," and he had gone to Kansas to do 
everything in his power to make the territory into a free state. 

In 1857 James Buchanan became president ; in the next four 

years there was one act that especially aroused the North and one The Dred 

Scott Dcci" 
that alarmed the South. The first was what was known as the gj^^ 

" Dred Scott Decision." Dred was a slave. His master kept him 
in Illinois several years, and then carried him back to Missouri. 
In Missouri, Dred was flogged. He said, " No man is a slave in 
Illinois; therefore, when I was there, I became free, and my 
master must pay for flogging me." The case went from one 
court to another, and at last the Supreme Court of the United 
States, whose business it is to tell what the laws mean when 
people differ, said, " A slave is not a person ; he is property, and 
his master may take him anywhere." The North cried indig- 
nantly, " That is not only protecting slavery in the states where 
it already exists, it is forcing slavery upon us ; " and the opposition 
to it became even more determined. 



206 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



John 
Brown's raid 




Two years later came the act that alarmed the South. " Osawa- 
tomie Brown " had left Kansas to live near Harper's Ferry in 
Virginia. He thought that with the aid of a few friends it would 
be possible to fortify some place in the mountains where fugitives 
might be safe, and that after a while the slaves might be united 
in a general revolt. To got arms, he seized upon the United 
_^ _ _ _ _^ States arsenal at Har- 

per's Ferry. A fight 
f olloAved ; John Brown 
was captured by 
United States troops 
led by Robert E. Lee, 
tried for treason and 
murder, and executed. 
He had broken the law 
of the land, and his 
punishment was law- 
ful ; but so much sym- 
pathy was felt in the 
North with his eagerness to free the negroes that liis death 
strengthened the northern hatred of slavery. 

In the South it was thought possible that John Brown was 
supported by many northerners. Thete might be a general revolt 
Seven states of the slaves, pillage, burning, and murder. The South w\as fear- 
ful of the horrors that might come, and more angry than ever 
\\dth the North. It was near the end of Buchanan's term. Many 
southerners declared that the South would leave the Union if 
the next President should oppose slavery. " Must a state be kept 
in the Union against its will ? " they asked. " Has it not a right to 
secede?" Abraham Lincoln was elected, and the watchword of 
his party was " No more slave states." Seven states, South Caro- 
lina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas 




secede 



TROUBLE ARISES OVER SLAVERY 207 

left the Union. Franklin's great-granddaughter was present when 
the senators of these seven states withdrew from Congress. Jef- 
ferson Davis was one of the senators, and he told her that the new 
government and the old would live side by side and be friendly to 
each other. " The North will never fight the South," he said. " You 
see how quietly they have let us go." 

SUMMARY. 

Texas freed herself from Mexico and was admitted to the United States. 
A quarrel over her boundary brought this country into a war with 
Mexico. 

The telegraph was invented. 

Tlie conflicting claims of the United States and Great Britain to Oregon 
were settled, and the northern boundary of our country was marked. 

California and a vast area of land east of California were ceded to the 
United States by Mexico. The discovery of gold in California caused 
a great westward migration in 1849. California was admitted as a 
free state, and to satisfy the South the Fugitive Slave law was passed. 
Squatter sovereignty did away with the Missouri Compromise. 

Tlie question of slavery became more violent. " Uncle Tom's Cabin " and 
the "Dred Scott Decision" aroused the North; while John Brown's 
raid alarmed the South. Finally, seven states seceded. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. ' 

Morse tells Congress how valuable the telegraph will be. 

A day's ride with a western emigrant. 

A Forty-niner describes his journey to California. 



208 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



XXI 

THE CIVIL WAR 



The South- 
ern Confed- 



eracy 



Virginia, 




CONFEDERATE 
BATTLE FLAG 



Lincoln's 
determina- 
tion 



The attack 
on Fort 
Sumter 



1801. 
Thk seven seceding states formed a union, or confederacy, and 
a little wliile four others joined them. These eleven were 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkan- 
sas, and Tennessee. Jefferson Davis, who had fought 
bravely in the Mexican War, was chosen president. 
A flag was adopted which had a red field crossed di- 
gonally by wide bars of blue outlined with white. In 
the bars were eleven stars for the secedmg states and 
two more for Missouri and Kentucky, which the Confeder- 
ates expected would secede because those states had sent 
representatives to tlie Confederate congress. 
Jefferson Davis had said that the northern states would not 
fight, and he had much reason to think so, for President Buch- 
anan was not sure that the government had any right to force a 
state to remain in the Union, and many people in the North agreed 
with him. When Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated, he said 
that he should not interfere with slavery where it already ex- 
isted, but that he should protect the Union and the property of 
the Union. 

Among these pieces of property were the forts, one of which, 
P^'ort Sumter, was on an island at the mouth of Charleston harbor. 
In April, 1861, the Confederates demanded its surrender, and 
when Major Anderson refused, General Beauregard fired upon it. 



THE CIVIL WAR 



209 




Copjrigbt, 1891, Ij M. V. Rice 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
(From an original nesalive made in 1864, when President Lincoln com- 
luiBsioned General Grant Lientenant-General and commander of all 
the armies of the republic) 

The TJnion men held out for two days. So much of the fort was 
on fire that the defenders had to lie on the ground with handker- 
chiefs over their mouths to keep from being suffocated. The 
powder was nearly gone. There was nothing to eat but salt 
pork. Then Major Anderson surrendered. The flag on the fort Surrender of 
had been shot through and through. Anderson saluted the tat- ^°'"* Sumter 
tered banner with fifty guns, and the little company which had 



210 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




formed the garrison marched out with drums beating and colors 
flying. 

The first gun fired upon Fort Sumter aroused tlie whole 

country. Before that 
men talked about what 
might happen. Now 
sometliing had hap- 
pened, and every man 
in the land must stand 
FORT SUMTER IN isbi f 0^, ^-^q XJuion or against 

The country it. Lincoln called for seventy-five thousand men to serve in the 
IS arouse army, and more than that number oftered themselves. Most 
people in the North supposed that the revolt would soon be 
suppressed, and Lincoln asked the men to serve for three months. 
The South, too, raised an army at once, and made ready to 
defend the border line of the seceded states. 
Richmond was chosen as the Confederate capi- 
tal. If the Union men could take Richmond 
or the Confederates could take Washington, 
it would be a great gain to the victors, it might 
even bring the war to an end. Week after 
week passed. " On to Washington ! " cried the 
Confederates. " Why does n't General Scott d(^ 
something ? " complained the Unionists. " He 
could fight in the Mexican War. Why does 
he stand still now ? On to Richmond ! " 

The two armies pressed a little nearer to- 
gether. Neither was ready to fight, but 
each commander felt that he must pay 
A UNION SOLDIER gouic regard to the wishes of his people. -^ confederate 

In Virginia, not far from Washington, is a little river called Bull 
,Run, and just beyond it is a railroad that runs from Washington 





THE CIVIL WAR 



211 



to the southwest. If the southern army held tliis railroad, they Battle of 
could bring men and arms and provisions from the South easily ^"" ^"" 
and quickly, and thus threaten Washington. The North meant 
to prevent the capture of the road, and that is why the first great 
battle of the war was fought near Bull Run. General Beauregard 




(J a L F OF MEXICO 



THE SOUTHERN CONFEDEKACY AND ADJACENT UNION STATES 

had come from Charleston, and was in command of the Con- 
federate forces. He had been educated at the United States 
Military Academy at West Point. Among his classmates was 
Irvin McDowell, and it was McDowell who stood on the other 
side of the little stream, leading the Union army. Another West 
Point graduate, General Jackson, was on the field, fighting for 



212 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



the Confederacy. It seemed at first as if the Union men would 
win, and as they pushed forward upon Jackson, an ofiflcer shouted 
to his troops, " Look at Jackson and his men standing there hke 
a stone wall." Soldiers always nickname their favorite command- 
ers, and from that day the brave general was known among them 
as " Stonewall " Jackson. 
There was a fierce battle, and thousands of men were slain. 
Defeat of the The Confederates were victorious, and the retreat of the Union 
soldiers was a wild stampede. Men, horses, army- wagons, gun- 






troops 



Making an 
army 



Blockade 
runners 



carriages, sutlers' teams, dashed along the road in the maddest 
confusion, while tents, cannon, and provisions were scattered 
along the way. The two chief reasons for the Union defeat were, 
first, that the soldiers had expected to wm the day easily ; sec- 
ondly, that they were "" green," as Lincoln said, and had no idea 
of the training and obedience required of a soldier. General 
McDowell said that on the march to Bull Run it was hard to 
keep these untrained warriors from leaving the ranks to pick 
blackberries. 

After Bull Run it was clear that the conflict would be long and 
serious. Lincoln called for seven times as many men as at first. 
Another thing that was clear was that bravery alone would not 
make a soldier. The troops must be drilled. General McClel- 
lan spent week after week in trainmg his men. In the autumn 
of 1861 there were thousands of men who wished to fight for the 
Union; in the spring of 1862 these men had become an army. 

The Confederates had felt almost sure of the favor and support 
of England, for English mills were using large quantities of 
southern cotton, and cotton could not be sent so long as there 
was war. A Union warship watched every important port, and 
a vessel trying to enter or leave the harbor was in great danger 
of being captured. Those that did attempt it were called block- 
ade runners. The risk was so great that an enormous price was 



THE CIVIL WAR 



213 



affair 




A CONFEDEKATE BLOCKADE RUNNER 

(This vessel, the A. D. Vance, was captured Sept. 10, 1S64) 



charged for the goods that they carried ; and before the war was 

over a pound of cotton that cost four cents m South Carolma 

could be sold for two dollars and a half in England. Two men The Trent 

were appointed by the Confederates to go to England and try to 

persuade both that country and France to help them. They were 

on board the Trent, a 

British mail - steamer. 

A Union captain obliged 

the Trent to stop, 

and carried away the 

two men. Thoughtless 

people throughout the 

North rejoiced, but 

Lincoln declared that 

this was exercising the right of search, and the men must be given 

up. They were set free with an explanation to England that their 

capture was not approved by the United States government. , 

1862. 

The United States government now planned to get control of 
the Mississippi. That would cut Texas, Arkansas, and most of The capture 
Louisiana from the other Confederate states, and would make it Orleans 
easy to transport men and supplies from the North. The first 
step was to take New Orleans, which would prevent blockade 
runners from landing there arms and ammunition or anything 
else that would help the Confederates. 

There was a naval officer named David Farragut who had gone 
to sea as a midshipman when he was only eleven years old. He 
had stood firmly by the Union, but some were afraid to trust 
Mm because he was of southern birth. The government be- 
lieved in him, and gave him command of the fleet that would, 
it was hoped, succeed in taking New Orleans. The city was 



214 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Merri- 
mac 




AN AUGUST MORNING WITH, FAKRAGUT 
(From W. H. Oveiend's painting showing Farragut in the rigging) 

defended by two forts, by sixteen gunboats, by chains stretched 
across the river, and by rafts of logs. Flat-boats loaded with 
pine-knots or with cotton were set afire and let loose to drift 
down among the ships ; but Farragut avoided the fire-boats, 
broke the chains, cut his way through the rafts, silenced the 
forts, and captured New Orleans. No one distrusted Farragut 
after tliis. 

While Farragut was on his way to New Orleans, a new sort of 
battle was being fought off the mouth of the James River. A 
Virginia navy yard had been seized by the Confederates at the 
beginning of the war. The Merrimac, a Union frigate taken at 
that time, was cut down to the water's edge and covered with a 
sloping roof of iron, pierced with holes for the cannon. This new 
kind of craft attacked the wooden vessels of the Union, One 
sank, another surrendered, a tliird, the Mmnesota, ran aground, 



THE CIVIL WAR 



215 




and the iron-clad left her destruction until the morning. Should 
she be abandoned ? Trains of powder were laid that she might 
be left and blown up. " Wait," ordered the captain. " And he 
did more than or- 
der," said one who 
was there. "He 
almost begged us 
to stay. We had 
heard about the 
Monitor, though 
we did not know 
whether the Monitor was coming or whether it would amount to 
anything if it did come, but a man, does not like to leave his ship, 
and we stayed." Morning came, and Avith it the queerest little 
vessel that was ever seen. "A cheese-box on a raft," the Con- 
federates called it. This was the Monitor, invented by a Swede, 
John Ericsson. It was made of iron, it carried two guns, and 
the " cheese-box " could be turned so that the guns might be fired 
in any direction. The battle \va.s a severe one, but neither ves- The battle 

sel was destroyed. 
Next day the Mer- 
rimac came out, 
l)ut as the Monitor 
^\"as needed to pro- 
tect Washington, 
it did not engage 
in another battle. 

TEE MOXITOR j^^^^^^, ^j^^ ^.^^^^^^^_ 

crates were forced to evacuate Norfolk, and destroyed the Merri- 
mac. This battle made it necessary for all countries to build iron- 
clad naval vessels instead of the wooden vessels that had been used. 
" On to Richmond ! " was still the cry, and a plan was made 



216 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



for McClellan to land near Yorktown, march up the Peninsula, 
as it was called, between the Y^ork and the James rivers, meet 
McDowell, and press on to Richmond. " Stonewall " 
Jackson was carrying on a brilliant campaign in 
the Shenandoah Valley, where small bodies of 
Union troops were stationed. Up and down the 
valley Jackson swept, making marches as lui- 
expected as Washington's sudden moves, and 
so rapid that people called his army " Stone- 
wall's foot-cavalry." It would not do to let 
McDowell and his troops leave Washington, 
for it was possible that Jackson might suc- 
ceed in reaching that city, and therefore Mc- 
Clellan had to do as best he could without 
them. Richmond was alarmed, and Jefferson Davis's 
niece wrote to a friend, " Uncle Jeff thinks we had 
better go to a safer 




attempt to 
take Rich- 
mond 



GENEKAL KOBEUT E. LEE 

McClellan's place than Richmond." After 
much fighting, McClellan was 
driven back toward the sea; 
and as there was still fear for 
the safety of Washington, he 
was ordered to come nearer the 
capital. 

There was reason for alarm. 

General Lee for the Confederates were evi- 
dently planning to carry the 
war into the North. General 
Robert E. Lee was now at the 
head of the Confederate army. 
He was the son of a famous 
Revolutionary officer, a West 



PENNSYLVA-.NIA 



■^ ^ . >N 





THE SCENE OF WAB NEAR WASHINGTON 
AND RICHMOND 



THE CIVIL WAR 



217 



Point graduate, and he had served with honor in Mexico. When 
the war broke out, he knew that a position in the Union army 
whicii might tempt any soldier, would be offered him, but Lee was 
not the man to do what he thought wrong for the sake of posi- 
tion. It was a strug- 
gle for him to choose 
on which side to stand, 
but he decided that 
as a citizen of Virginia 
he ought to follow the 
bidding of his state. 
This was the man 
who was pressing to- 
ward Washington. He 
thought that the peo- 
ple of Maryland would 
be glad to join him, 
and that with them he 
could march against 
the capital ; but the 
Marylanders did not wish to join him. There was a terrible fight 
at Antietam in Maryland, and Lee withdrew into Virginia. 

During the year 1862, the great gains of the Union forces had 
been the capture of New Orleans, the securing of the command 
of the sea, and the withdrawal of Lee from Antietam. On the 
Confederate side, Jackson had swept the L^nion troops from the 
Shenandoah Valley, and Lee had kept McClellan from Richmond, 




BRmGE OVER ANTIETAM CREEK 
(From Battles and Leaders of the Civil War) 



1863. 
Civilized nations have adopted a rule that private property 

in war except in times of great necessity Contrabands 



must not be touched 

unless it is plainly intended to be 



used for military purposes, 



of war 



218 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Emanci- 
pation Pro- 
clamation 



The 
Alabama 



as in the case of guns or ammunition. It is then called con- 
traband, or illegal, and it may be seized by the opposing side. 
Wherever the Union army appeared, runaway slaves flocked to 
the camp, and what to do with them was a little puzzling. Gen- 
eral Butler, a shrewd man with a keen sense of humor, finally 
solved the problem. When a " master " came to him and de- 
manded the return of some runaway slaves on the ground that 
they were private property, the general said, " No. You will use 
them in making fortifications and in raising corn to support the 
Confederate army. They are contraband of war." After this, 
the negroes were often called "contrabands." 

In time of civil war the President, as commander-in-chief of 
the army of the United States, can do very nearly what he thinks 
wise, provided the greater part of the people approve of his acts. 
When the flrst day of 1863 came, Lincoln signed a paper that is 
almost as famous as the Declaration of Independence. It is called 
the Emancipation Proclamation, and it declared that all slaves of 
those who were resisting the Union government were free. 

Thousands of slaves did not hear of their freedom for months, 
but the Proclamation made it clear to the world, and especially 
to England, that whoever helped the Confederacy would be help- 
ing slavery; and as England had abolished slavery in all her 
colonies, she could hardly support it in America. 

She did, however, give much indirect aid to the Confederates, 
for although she had promised to help neither side, she allowed 
them to buUd at the English shipyards swift blockade runners, 
and armed privateers to destroy Union vessels. The most power- 
ful of these was called the Alabama. She destroyed a warship, 
captured a mail-steamer, and either sank or burned more than 
sixty other American vessels, chiefly merchantmen. She was 
finally sunk by a Union ship. 

The year 1863 began with the Emancipation Proclamation. In 



THE CIVIL WAR 



219 



May, the Confederates were victorious at Chancellorsville in Mary- 
land ; but they met with a loss that was worse than a defeat, 
for through a mistake " Stonewall " Jackson was shot by his 
own men. In the month of July there were two great northern 
victories. The first was at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, for Lee Gettysburg 
again invaded the North. LTp the valley of the Shenandoah he 
marched, across the Potomac, 
through Maryland, and into 
Pennsylvania. He planned 
first to take Ilarrisburg, 
then Philadelphia. He 
came to Gettysburg, lying- 
in a peaceful valley, with 
orchards, green fields, farm- 
houses, and away to the 
west the blue mountains. 
Here he met the Union 
forces and fought the 
most terrible battle of 
the war. For three days 
it raged. One man out 
of every four — some say 
one out of every three 
— was killed, wounded, ^^ 
or missing. Such was the slaughter that men threw themselves 
on the ground and held up bits of white paper to show that they 
had surrendered. Lee was driven back, and retreated into Vir- 
ginia. 

The day after the battle was spent by both sides in V)urying 
the dead. Four months later, a part of the battleground was set Lincoln's 
apart as a national cemetery. Lincoln made on the day of the sp^eech ^^^ 
dedication a short, simple speech, so full of thought and feeling. 




I\G PICKETT'S CHARGE AT GETTYSBURG 
loiaina, by permission of the National Panorama Co.) 



220 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




and appreciation of the honor clue to those who had given their 
lives for their country, tliat it will never be forgotten. 
The siege of The second great Union victory was at Yicksburg. If that 
Vicksburg tQ^yn and Port Hudson could 
be taken, the Mississippi would 
be in the hands of the Union ; 
but it was not easy to take 
Yicksburg. The city stood on 
a blutf so high that shot could 
not be thrown to it from ves- 
sels on the river, while the 
city guns could easily sink any 
ship that attempted to pass. 
For three months General mortar for throw jnc, chills 
Grant and General Sherman tried to get into a position to attack 
the town. At last they succeeded, and the siege of seven weeks 
began. Day and night the shells were falling. People dug caves 
into the side of the hill to be safe from flying fragments. A lady 
who lived in one of the caves wrote that even the mules in the 
town seemed wild, and the dogs would 
liowl madly when a shell exploded. 
1^'ood was scanty. By and by it gave 
out altogether, and finally the brave, 
suffering, starving people surrendered. 
The Confederate flag was hauled 
down, and the banner of the Union 
run up. The whole Union army 
witnessed the scene, but not a cheer 
LMoN M\i 11 ui M!(.\i ^yas given, says General Grant, so 

deeply were the courage and endurance of the people respected. 
One member of the victorious army was the war-eagle, "Old 
Abe," the pet of a Wisconsin regiment. He was in many a bat- 




THE CIVIL WAR 221 

tie, and when the noise and confusion were greatest, he would 
flap his wings and scream as if war was his cliief deUght. 

A few days later Port" Hudson, which lies between Vicksburg 
and New Orleans, yielded, and the Mississippi was in the hands The Mis- 
of the Union. This capture prevented the bringing of troops and uSorf' '" 
supplies from Texas and Arkansas to the aid of the Confederate hands 
states east of the Mississippi. The Confederacy had now no way 
to communicate with Europe. It was shut in upon itself. 

The greater part of the Confederate army was now divided 
between Virginia and the northwestern corner of Georgia. It 
was in Georgia that the hardest fighting of the last six months 
of the year took place. One battle was at Chickamauga. The 
Union forces lost, but it would have been a far more terrible 
defeat if the bold stand made by General Thomas had not 
prevented the rout of the army. The Confederates had had 
a " Stonewall " Jackson. Now the Unionists had a " Rock of 
Chickamauga," for this was the name that the soldiers gave 
to General Thomas. 

Several other battles were fought in that part of the coun- 
try. The last one was called the " Battle above the Clouds." It 
took place on Lookout Mountain, and the heavy mist settled down 
so darkly that while the eager watchers in the valley could hear 
the sound of the cannon, they could only guess who were losing 
and who were winning. The Union forces won. " God bless you 
all ! " came over the wires to General Grant from the weary, 
anxious President in Washington, for every victory brought 
nearer the coming of peace for which he prayed. 

The end of 1863 came. During this year the Confederates 
had been successful at Chancellorsville and Chickamauga, but 
they had lost General Jackson. Lee had kept the Union sol- 
diers from Richmond, but the repulse at Gettysburg had driven 
him from Pennsylvania. The Mississippi had fallen into the 




222 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



end the war 



hands of the Union, and Union troops had been successful in 
Georgia. 

1864. 

Two men now stood out as the most successful generals in 
The plan to the Union army. Grant and Sherman. Grant was put at the 
head of all the Union forces. The two generals formed a plan 
that they hoped would end the war. Grant was 
to face Lee and try to take Richmond; 
Sherman was to cut his way through Geor- 
gia to the sea. 

Grant went into Virginia from the 
north, swept around to the east of 
IJichmond, then to the south. There 
were terrible battles. There were 
two days of fighting in a dark, 
gloomy forest called the Wilder- 
ness. The woods caught fire, and 
wounded men were burned to death 
in the blazing timber. There were 
explosions of trains of ammunition. 
There were dense clouds of the 

commissioned commander-in-cliief) Smokc of pOWdcr. Suffering mCU 

lay moaning. The underbrush was crackling in the fire. Men 
shot at their opponents in the darkness, or took aim by the 
glare of the flames. It is thought that about 30,000 men were 
killed. Neither side could claim a victory. 

General Grant pressed on till he was at Petersburg, south of 
the Confederate capital. Lee had not men enough to drive him 
away, but he could keep him from advancing upon Richmond. 
lie even made the government fear another invasion of the 
Xorth, for he sent General Early through the Shenandoah Val- 
ley toward Maryland. 




GENKKAL U. S. GRANT 
(From a picture taken in IS(;4 when lie was 



Battles of 
the Wilder 
ness 



In the 

Shenandoah 

Valley 



THE CIVIL WAR 



223 





lb 



CONFEDERATE CAPITOL, RICHMOND 



Sheridan marched out to oppose him. Early had once been 
within a few miles of Washington and had burned Chambers- 
burg, but now his opponent 
went through the valley with 
orders to destroy everything 
which would feed man or 
beast, that there might be no 
more raids upon Pennsylva- 
nia. It was not long before he 
reported to Grant, " If a crow 
should want to fly through 
the valley, he would have to 
carry his food with him." 

Sheridan was called to Washington, and when he returned to 
Winchester, he heard firing far away. He put spurs to his great Sheridan's 
black horse and galloped on. He met men running to the town. " ^ 
" General Early has attacked us," they cried, " and we are beaten." 
" Back ! " ordered Sheridan. " We '11 beat them yet. Face about ! " 

he shouted to the retreating cav- 
alry. They did face about. Early 
was driven away, and the disas- 
ter was prevented. This was the 
" Sheridan's ride " which the 
poem by that name has made 
famous. 

But while Grant was before 
Richmond and Sheridan was in Where was 
the Shenandoah Valley, where Sherman ? 
was Sherman? He was attack- 
ing the Confederate forces in 
northwestern Georgia. The Con- 
federate general, Johnston, had not men enough to meet Sher- 




SHERMAN'S ROUTE TO THE SEA 




224 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

man, but he retreated after the masterly fasliion of Washington 
in New Jersey. Sherman had to leave guards behind him to 
protect the railroads, and Johnston meant to continue the re- 
treat until so many men had been left that the two armies could 
fight on equal terms. After two months of this retreating, the 
Confederate War Department gave Johnston's command to Gen- 
eral Hood. Hood made bold attacks on 
Sherman, 'but was obliged to retreat, 
leaving Sherman in possession 
of Atlanta. Then began Sher- 
man's famous " march to 
the sea." He marched 
southeast through thf 
state in four col- 
umns, twenty -,. ' " ^ 
miles apart, cut- *• 
ting a swath ^-"^i^ 
sixty miles wide. 
He burned At- 
lanta with its CORDUROY ROADS IN SOUTH CAROLINA 

mills and foundries. He destroyed railroads and bridges, leaving 
a pitiful ruin behind him. The object of this march was not only 
to cut the Confederacy in two, but to destroy everything that 
would help the Confederates to carry on the war. Just before 
Christmas he entered Savannah, and sent to President Lincohi 
the message: — 

I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, 
with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammuni- 
tion ; also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton. 

W. T. Sherman. 

So ended the year 1864. The Confederates had burned Cham- 



THE CIVIL WAR 



225 



bersburg, but Sheridan had devastated the valley of the Shenan- 
doah, Sherman had made a wide path of ruin through Georgia 
to Savannah, and Grant had pushed on toward Richmond as far 

as Petersburg. 

1865. 

The year in which the war was to end began. Sherman had a 
hard march before him, and he would not leave Savannah until The end 
his men wore rest(Ml. Thoy were impatient to go on, and when he ''^^ 




WASmNGTOI* iliALMlM UM) L ^i 



rode about the camp, they would call out, " Uncle Billy, Grant is 
waiting for us at Richmond." Finally the march through South 
Carolina began. The streams were swollen, the swamps flooded, 
and the roads were often only long lines of mud. The men 
waded, they built bridges, they made " corduroy roads." At last 
they were in North Carolina. Both Sherman and Grant had many 
more men than the Confederate commanders near them, and 
they believed that one more battle would end the war. 



226 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Lee's sur- 
render 



Lee was one of the great commanders of history, and his sol- 
diers trusted liim and loved him ; but his army was reduced to 
26,000 men, and many of those were so weak from exposure and 
want of food that they could not lift their muskets to their 
shoulders. The most skilful general is helpless without strong 
men and food and suppUes. Lee could no longer protect the 
Confederate capital. " Richmond has surrendered," was tele- 
graphed to Washington, and on the 9th of April Lee's whole 
force surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, a little 
village west of Richmond. The two generals met to discuss 
terms. It was agreed that the Southern soldiers should lay down 
their arms and return to their homes in peace. The horses Grant 











APPOMAITUX CurRT HOUSE 
(From a war-time photograph) 

left with the cavalry. " I hope this will be the last battle of the 
war," he said, "and they will need the horses to work their 
farms." Lee's men had been living for days on parched corn, 
and not very much of that. Grant's first action was to send a 
generous supply of food to the men. 



THE CIVIL WAR 



227 



This surrender was the real close of the war. On April 14th, 
just four years after the fall of Fort Sumter, Anderson was 




Copyright. 1887. by The Century Co. 

UNION SOLDIERS SHARING THEIR RATIONS WITH CONFEDERATES 
AFTER LEE'S SURRENDER 

sent to take command of the fort a second time. The same old 
flag was hoisted, pierced with the holes of the first shots of the 
war. Late that evening, in the midst of the rejoicings of the The assassi- 
defenders of the Union, the telegraph flashed over the country president 
the message, " President Lincoln has been assassinated," and all Lincoln 
the joy was turned into sorrow. He was shot by 
a man who fancied that he was avenging the 
" wrongs of the South." In reality he was mur- 
dering the true friend of the South, Only six 
weeks before, when Lincoln was made President 
for the second time, he said in his inaugural 
speech : — 

" With malice toward none, with charity for 
all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us ^^ 

power to see the right, let us strive to finish the canteen 




\. J. 



228 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

work we are in ... to do all which may achieve and cherish 
a just and lasting peace among ourselves." 

SUMMARY. 

18G1. The Civil War began with the caiDture of Fort Sumter. The Union 
forces were defeated at Bull Run. The capture of the Confederate 
commissioners on the Trent nearly made trouble with England. 

1862. The Union forces capture New Orleans. The contest between the 
IVIonitor and the Merrimac took place. Jackson swept the Shenan- 
doah Valley. McClellan failed to reach Richmond, and Lee withdrew 
from Antietam. 

1863. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The Alabama did 
much damage to Union ships. The Confederates were victorious at 
Chancellorsville, but Lee was repulsed at Gettysburg. The Union 
forces gained control of the Mississippi by the capture of Vicksburg 
and Port Hudson. The Confederates were successful at Chickamauga. 

1864. Grant pressed on to Petersburg. Early had burned Chambersburg, 
and to prevent such raids Sheridan devastated the Shenandoah Valley. 
Sherman marched through Georgia to Savannah. 

1865. Lee was forced to abandon Richmond, and to surrender at Appo- 
mattox Court House April 9th. Four years from the day when Fort 
Sumter fell President Lincoln was assassinated. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

A soldier writes about the attack upon Fort Sumter. 

A boy describes the siege of Vicksburg. 

Two sailors on the Minnesota discuss the possible coming of the Monitor. 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 



229 



XXII 
THE EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 

After the war, the government had to decide a difficult ques- 
tion. This was, " Will it be safe to allow the states that wished The position 
to leave the Union 
to send represent- 
atives to Congress 
and help make the 
laws for the coun- 
try?" Lincoln's be- 
lief was, " No state 
cawleave the Union. 
Some persons have 
raised an insurrec- 
tion, but this has 
been suppressed. 




THE W HITE HOUSE 
(The official residence of the President is it appeal s to day. 
vas laid by tt asliington, Oct. 13, 1792) 



-stone was laid by ^\ asliington, Oct 

These states as states have not forfeited their 
right to send representatives." 

When Lincoln died, the Vice-President, Andrew Johnson, be- 
came president. His belief was almost the same as Lincoln's, but Andrew 
where Lincoln would persuade men, Johnson would try to compel *^°""son 
them, and all through his term of office there were quarrels be- 
tween him and Congress, and many of the laws made at that time 
were made not with the President's consent, but in spite of his 
opposition. 

An addition was made to the Constitution which is kno^^ai as The Thir- 
the Thirteenth Amendment. It forbids slavery in the United Amendment 
States or in any place governed by the United States. A law 



230 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Carpet- 
baggers 



The negro 
vote 




THE GREAT EASTERN LAYING THE ATLANTIC CABLE 



was passed requiring every man who wished to hold office in the 
South to take what was called the " iron-clad oath," declaring that 
he had taken no part in the war. This was an unwise demand, 
for almost every respectable man in the seceding states had taker 
part in the war; and the result of the act was that worthless 

men from the North 
persuaded or bribed 
the negroes to vote 
them into office. These 
men were called " car- 
pet-baggers," because 
they usually had no 
property, and often no 
baggage except a car- 
pet-bag. For a con- 
siderable time the northern adventurers and the ignorant negroes 
were in power in the South. 

In order to send representatives to Congress, the Confederate 
states had been obliged by the government to grant the negroes 
the right to vote ; but it was not long before the wliites had the 
power in their own hands again, for in many places they would 
either frighten the negroes or bribe them, and so keep them away 
from the polls. United States troops were then sent South to 
protect the negroes in their right to vote and to support the men 
who had been lawfully elected ; but the soldiers did not like this 
duty, the whites were angry, and the negroes often suffered more 
than before the troops came. Matters were made a little better 
by the pardoning of those Confederates who had taken part in the 
war, and restoring to nearly all the right to hold office. Though 
there are even now some hard questions to settle about the ne- 
groes, it is probable that very few men in our country, even in 
the South, would be willing to have the days of slavery return. 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 231 

In 1866, while Johnson was still in office, Europe and America 
came nearer together. It took Columbus ten weeks to cross the The Atlantic 
Atlantic. The Pilgrims spent nine weeks in sailing from Eng- ^^^^^ 
land to Massachusetts. In 1812, even a swift sailing vessel 
needed a month. Before the Civil War, the invention of steam- 
boats had made it possible to send a message from England to 
America in ten or eleven days. A persevering man named Cyrus 
W. Field was now convinced that a telegraph wire might be laid 
across the Atlantic Ocean. The first attempt failed, the second 
failed, the third time all went well, but in a few days the cable 
broke. Field's money was gone, and his friends had no more 
that they wished to invest. At last Congress voted to help him. 
This time the cable succeeded. The wire was laid from Ireland 
to Newfoundland, and instead of the New World and the Old 
being ten weeks apart, whatever was done in one continent 
could be known in the other in a very 
fcAv minutes. Whittier wrote of 
this new wonder : — ^^ 

sia. Every time that the coun- '^<OT»llf!S!ifi®^"' 

Photograph by ^N . H. Partridge 

try has bought a piece of land, sitka, alaska 

there have been citizens who opposed the purchase for one reason The pur- 
er another ; and when Alaska was bought, some declared that it Alaska^ 
was a foolish, extravagant deed, that the country could "keep 



232 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The 

Alabama 
claims 



house " without a " refrigerator," This " refrigerator," however, 
is just the place for fur-bearing animals, and in a few years the 
fur companies had paid for the right to collect furs much more 
than Alaska had cost. The recent discovery of gold in the Klon- 
dike district of Alaska has greatly increased the value of this 
possession. 

Few were pleased with Johnson's management, and in 1868 
General Grant was elected to succeed him. While Grant was 
in office, an unportant war question was settled in regard to the 
"Alabama claims," whether or not England ought to pay for the 
damage that the Alabama and other privateers built in that 
country had done to American shipping. For less cause than 
this, nations have fought long and bloody wars, but both coun- 
tries agreed that the matter should be left to five men who 
would not favor either party. The men met at Geneva in Switzer- 
land. They decided that England should not have allowed the 
boats to be l)uilt, and tliat she must pay to the United States 

fifteen and one half 
million dollars to make 
good the harm that 
they had done. 

The Atlantic cable 
had brought Europe 
nearer to America, but 
the Americans had felt 
for many years that 
eastern and western 
America ought to be 
Travel in the joined together. Gold and silver had been found east of the 
far west Rocky Mountains. Emigrants were going westward by thou- 
sands. There were railroads as far as the Missouri, but no regu- 
lar way of sending letters or goods from the Missouri to the " far 



J 



^/^ 




THE CONFEDIIIVTE PK1\ \.ll 1 I \l \l \ 
(1 rom Official Records of the Union and C ante lerate 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 233 

West," now that this " far West " had moved from the Mississippi 
to the Pacific. The days of the postrider returned, and the " pony 
express" was introduced. Each mail carrier rode seventy-five 
miles, finding a fresh horse awaiting liim every twenty-five miles. 
Then another man took the mail and galloped away. The next The Union 
plan for carrying mail and passengers was by stage-coach ; but Rgj^iro^ 
while in Revolutionary days this would have been thought a 
luxurious way to travel, it was entirely too 
slow for the sons and grandsons of the 
Revolutionary heroes. A rail- 
road ought to be built across . \ -^ WWSi^ ^*12IT^ 
the continent, so the people 
said, and the Union Pacific 
Railroad was begun. There 
were mountain ranges to 
be climbed, vast expanses 
of prairie to be crossed, 
and rivers to be bridged. It took 
seven years to build the road, but 
at last the golden spike was driven that 
marked its completion. Every year the " the pony express •• 
trains go a little faster, and to-day one can cross the continent in 
less time than it would have taken the New Yorker of a century 
earlier to go to Boston and return. 

The time soon came when it was natural to look back a century, 
for the hundredth anniversary of the days when the thirteen col- The 
onies were becoming a nation was at hand. In 1873 a tea-party Centennial 
was given in Philadelphia in memory of the Boston Tea-party of 
1773. Lowell wrote a poem about the fight at Concord bridge, 
and the men — 

" Who did great things, not knowing they were great." 

One event after another was commemorated in song or in cele- 




234 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Greenbacks 
become as 
good as 
gold 



bration; but the great celebration came in 1876, the hundredth 
birthday of the nation. The Declaration had been signed in 
Philadelphia, and there the Centennial Exposition was held. All 
the nations of the world were invited to come to the celebra- 
tion of the United States, and to brin^ specimens of what they 
could make or produce. One guest was the war-eagle, " Old Abe." 
The exhibition was most interesting, and it was a great help to 
our manufactures, for it gave us new ideas, and taught us new 
methods. The United States had no need to be ashamed of her 
own exhibit, for although she was the youngest nation repre- 
sented, her list of recent useful inventions was longer than that 
of any other country. 

In 1877 Rutherford B. Hayes became president. There was no 
important treaty while he was in office, there was no war and no 
discovery of gold, but a great event took place, for the treasurer 
of the United States announced that he was ready to exchange 
gold for "greenbacks." Just as in the Revolution the colonies 

issued paper money, so 
in the Civil War, when 
the government needed 
money, it issued bills, 
called " greenbacks," be- 
cause the backs were 
printed with green ink. 
Tin: tj:i;a,sij;y };riLi)ixG, wASHiNcTON Tliese bills were only 
the promise of the government to pay in gold or silver the amount 
named, and people knew that if the government should fall, they 
would never be paid. When the Union won a battle, the value 
of the greenbacks would rise, but if the Union lost, it would fall ; 
and at one time it cost nearly three dollars in greenbacks to buy 
one dollar in gold. The government needed so much money 
during the war that a clock ticking sixty times a minute would 




EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 



235 



the war 



have to run for more than ninety years before it could tick oft", 
once for every dollar, the money borrowed. After the war, the Paying for 
United States began straightway to pay the debt; the green- 
backs rose in value, and when finally the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury offered to give gold in exchange for greenbacks, people did 
not care to accept the offer, because the promise of the United 
States had become literally "' as good as gold." 

In 1881 James A. Garfield was elected president. A few 
months later he was shot, and Chester A, Arthur, the Vice- 
President, became president. This murder was 
partly due to a mistake made fifty years be- 
fore by honest, faithful Andrew Jackson. The 
kind-hearted old warrior could not bear to re- 
fuse a friend who asked for a position, and to 
make room for these friends he turned out 
large numbers of those who were in office. 
This act grew into a custom. Every man 
who had tried to help elect the successful 
candidate thought he ought to have the re- 
ward of a government position. Hayes did 
not believe in this custom, and Garfield did 
not. Men who had voted for Garfield expected the usual reward, 
and were angry when it was not given them. It was one of these 
disappointed seekers after office Avho shot President Garfield. 

This crime aroused Congress, and a law was made requirmg 
many offices to be filled only by men who had successfully passed Civil Service 
an examination. Another law, which applied to many thousand ^ °^"^ 
subordinate positions, provided that men who were working for 
the government well and faithfully should not lose their places 
when the party that appointed them went out of power. These 
laws were a long step in the direction of justice and fairness. 
They were passed while President Arthur was in power, so that 




JAMES A. GARFIELD 
(Died September 19, 1881) 



236 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



SUGAR- 

Two-tent 
postage 



Succession 
to the presi 
dency 



his term of office was marked by the beginning of what is called 
Civil Service Reform. 

It was at this time that two expositions somewhat like the 
Centennial were held in the South, and the whole country was 
glad to see the prosperity of the southern states. The South 
had feared that the negroes would not work if they were 
free, but now it was proved that far more cotton was raised 
in proportion to the number of the negroes than before 
the war. More tobacco and sugar were also raised and 
much more corn and wheat. Manufacturing was now 
carried on m the South. The southerners were also look- 
ing below the surface of the ground as they had never 
done before; and, behold, there were great beds of coal 
and of iron. Cotton seed used to be thrown away, but 
now every state that raises cotton receives a large income from 
the sale of the oil that is pressed out of the seed. 

It was in Arthur's time that a great change was made in a 
small thing. A law was passed that instead of asking three 
cents for a letter stamp, the government should charge but 
CANE two. This law applies to all land owned by the United 
States, and that is why we can send a letter to the Philippines 
for two cents, wliile it costs five cents to send one to England. 

After Garfield was shot and all knew that there was little 
hope of his recovery, the Vice-President also became seriously ill. 
There was nothing in our Constitution to decide who should 
become president if both died ; but under Grover Cleveland, the 
next President, a law was made that if both the President and 
Vice-President should die, the Secretary of State should rule, and 
if he died, the Secretary of the Treasury should take his place, 
and so on through the cabmet. As the cabinet is made up of 
men chosen by the President, they would be likely to carry out 
his ideas and the wishes of the people who had elected him. 




EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 237 

While Cleveland was in office the Chinese were forbidden to 
enter the United States. Our country is so large that for many The Chinese 
years it did not occur to Americans to shut out any one who ^^^ ^ "^ °"^ 
wished to come in, but after a whUe it was found that some of 
the European states were sending paupers across the ocean, be- 
cause it was cheaper to pay their fare than to support them at 
home. This was forbidden, and the government began to look a 
little more closely at the kinds of people who were landing on 
our shores. It was found that the Chinese differed from other 
immigrants in two respects. One was that they were wiUing to 
work for very small wages ; and the workingmen of the Pacific 
coast said, " There are so many Chinese, and they work so cheap, 
that employers are refusing to pay us the wages that we have 
been receiving." The other difference was that while most men 
from other nations would stay in the United States and become 
citizens, the Chinese would stay only mitil they had made a cer- 
tain amount of money and would then go home, carrying their 
money with them. A law was passed forbiddmg the Chinese to 
come into the land. Many persons thought that this law ought 
not to be made, because we had a treaty with China allowing the 
Chinese the same rights as other nations, but the Supreme Court 
decided that Congress had a right to say who should be allowed 
to enter the land. 

France had not forgotten her old friendship of a century 
earlier, and in token of this and of her respect for the United The statue 
States, she presented the country with a colossal statue of Lib- Liberty 
erty. It stands on an island in New York harbor. It is so large 
that a room in the head of the figure will hold forty persons. In 
one hand is a torch which may be lighted by electricity. 

Cleveland's term of office expired in 1889, and he was suc- 
ceeded by Benjamin Harrison, the third man by the name of 
Harrison who has been famous in our country's history. One 



238 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The McKin-' signed the Declaration of Independence ; Ms grandson, nicknamed 
ley tariff » xippecanoe," was elected president in 1841 ; and in 1889 the 
grandson of "Tippecanoe" became president. In 1841 there was 
much discussion about the tariff. One party said, "The dut]^ 
on imported goods ought to be just high enough to pay the 
expenses of the government, and then prices wiU be low." The 
other said, "If imported goods are too cheap, our manu- 
facturers will either go out of business or else they will 
pay our workmen no higher wages than the workmen in 
Europe receive." When Benjamin Harrison became presi- 
dent, people were discussing this same question, William 
McKinley, of Ohio, proposed in Congress a bill whose 
aim was to impose a high duty upon imported goods that 
could be manufactured in this country. This bill became 
a law. 

The right was also given to the President to change 

the duty on certain articles, if the country sending those 

articles should impose unfair duties upon our products. 

This principle was called reciprocity, and by this means 

^^^i:i^^^^g we could be sure of fair treatment, for we had become 

T, ,,mr^arar%^ !>f'r£^w' ^^ i^ygQ and so rich a nation that other nations were 

eager to win the privilege of selUng their goods in this 

country. 

Millions of people from Europe had come to make 

their homes in America, Instead of thirteen little 

colonies clinging to the Atlantic coast, our nation 

spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and great 

cities had sprung into life where half a century earlier there had 

been only a wilderness. In the movement of population to the 

westward there had sometimes been trouble with the Indians. 

They were here first, but most people have come to feel that 

roammg over a land does not give a claim to it, and that civilized 




STATirE OF LIBLUIY 
i Designed by Bartholdi and pre- 
sented by France to the United 
States. It was completed in 

1886) 



Indian 
troubles 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 



239 



of Oklahoma 



nations have a right to take possession of " wild land." The 
Indians were gathered into tracts called reservations, in places 
where it was thought no white men would wish to live; and 
then as these tracts became valuable, the Indians were moved, 
not once, but many times. It is no wonder that they tried to 
resist, and that there were bloody massacres. 

In the year that Benjamin Harrison became president, the In- 
dians were moved from Oklahoma, and one April day there was The opening 
a strange scene acted on the border of the new territory. Thou- 
sands of men had gathered together from all parts of the country. 
Just at noon a bugle sounded ; men ran, horses galloped, wagons 
swayed wildly to and fro. Everybody was frantically struggling 
to get possession of a 
bit of land, for the gov- 
ernment had agreed 
that whoever was first 
on a lot might have it 
for his own on pay- 
ment of a small sum, 
much less than the 
land was worth. This 
was so unfair a way 
to grant property that 
when the time came 
to open another terri- 
tory to settlers, the plan was tried of allowing them to draw lots 
for the pieces of land. 

After Harrison's term of office was over, Cleveland was again 
elected. In his first term he had done all that he could to help Civil Service 
on Civil Service Reform, and during this second term he sue- ^^f^'''" 
ceeded in putting many more offices under the merit system. 

Before Cleveland's second election there was much discussion 




240 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Colum- about the best way to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary 
bian Exposi- ^^ ^-^^ landing of Columbus. In 1876 the Centennial had cele- 
brated the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of 
Independence, and it was now decided to hold an exposition in 
Chicago. The buildings of the exposition were exceedingly beau- 
tiful. So many of them were white that they were known as 
the "White City." In Chicago there were more than a mil- 
lion inhabitants, but many a man went to the Columbian Ex- 
position, as it was called, who could remember when the city 
consisted of a fort and a few little huts. The celebration should 
have been held just four hundred years after the coming of 

Columbus, but the 
plan was not made 
early enough, and 
the doors could 
not be opened un- 
til 1893. 

When people 
were calling Co- 
lumbus the " crazy 
man," how sur- 
prised he would 
have been if some 
one had whis- 
pered, " Four hun- 
dred years hence 
the greatest celebration that the world has known will be held 
in your honor on a continent of which you know nothing." And 
when Franklin was flying his kite and finding out that electricity 
and lightning were the same thing, how it would have pleased 
him if he had been told that the knowledge which he was gaining 
would help to give to the celebration its greatest beauty and 




THE PERISTYLE AND FRENCH'S STATUE OF LIBERTY 
AT THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 



241 







charm, for the thousands of electric lights made the "White 
City " a fairyland by night. 
The next president was William McKinley, the Ohio congress- 
man whose plans for A hopeful 
the tariff had been °"^^°°'' 
adopted seven years 
before. Forty- 
tive states had 
been admitted 
to the Union, 
business was flourish- 
ing, the crops were 
large, and throughout 

A CUBAN HOMESTEAD 1 
(This was later burned by the Spaniards) the COUUtry thcrC 

seemed to be good reason to expect a peaceful, prosperous time. 

One hundred miles oft" our coast, however, there was trouble, 
and it was soon plain that this trouble would affect the United 
States. Cuba belonged to Spam, and the island had been ruled 
so harshly that the Cubans had tried many times to free them- 
selves from Spanish control. Soon after McKinley became 
president, they tried again and fought more desperately than 
ever. Spain could not suppress the revolt, and her command- 
3rs treated the Cubans so savagely that the United States 
believed it was time to interfere. Another reason for inter- 
ference was that the Cubans and their friends were trying to 
fit out vessels in the United States to carry arms and sup- 
plies to the island. The only way to prevent this was for 
our government to keep ships sailing up and down our long 
coast, and the expense of such patrolling was very great. 
A third reason was that many Americans owned property 
on the island, and this war was breaking up their business 
* From Marching with Gomez, by Grover Flint. 




CENERAL GOMEZ I 
' Leader of the Cu- 
ban patriots) 



242 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



The Span- 
ish fleet ii 
the East 
destroyed 




Copyright, 1899, by J. C. Hemment 

THE MAINE ENTERING HAVANA HARBOK 
(Morro Castle appears on the right) 



and causing them much loss. To protect them if need should 

come, the United States battleship Maine was anchored in the 

harbor of Havana. 
It was blown up. 
There was suspi- 
cion that Span- 
iards had caused 
the disaster. Spain 
had shown herself 
unfit to rule over 
Cuba, and war was 
declared. 

Spain was sup- 
posed to have a formidable navy, but if this could be destroyed, 

she would be powerless. One of 

her fleets was in the Pacific, in the 

harbor of Manila, the chief city of 

her Philippine colonies. Commo- 
dore Dewey was off the coast of 

China in command of an American 

fleet of six warships. The order 

came to him, "Capture [Spanish] 

vessels or destroy." Mines that 

would explode at a touch were 

scattered about Manila harbor, but 

Dewey steamed in one night, and 

destroyed ten Spanish warships and 

one transport without losing a 

man. The power of Spain in the 

Pacific vanished in a day. 

Spam then sent a fleet across the the Philippine islands 

Atlantic. The United States vessels kept close watch, and it was 





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EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 



243 



T'll '^%^% ^-^ 


LEOFM.LES , 







learned that the Spaniards had gone into Santiago de Cuba for Fighting at 
coal. An American fleet guarded the mouth of the harbor where ciba^^° ^^ 
the Spanish ships were " bottled up," and American soldiers were 

sent to capture the town. 
There were white troops and 
negro troops. There were 
men who had fought for the 
Union, and there were men 
who had fought against the 
Union. One interesting regl- The Rough 
ment commanded by Colonel ^"^^'"^ 
Leonard Wood had been raised 
THE WEST INDIES "by Licutenant-colonel Theo- 

dore Roosevelt. He had graduated at Harvard, had lived on a 
western ranch and in New York city. He was an enthusiastic 
student and had written many books. He had also tamed vicious 
broncos, pursued thieves, been at the head of the New York 
police commission, and was, at the begin- 
ning of the war. Assistant Secretary of 
the Navy. His regiment was made up of 
"cowboys" from the West, pohcemen, 
millionaires, men who had fought more 
than one wild battle with the Indians, 
and men who knew far more about dan- 
cing than fighting. In one respect they 
Avere all ahke, for every one of them was 
a brave man, and was ready to follow 
" Teddy," as they nicknamed their leader, 
into danger or death. Some one called 
them the " Rough Riders," and they were 
rarely spoken of by any other title. AU 
these men were in Cuba. An attack was 




A KOUGH RIDER 
(From a photograph of Captain Kane) 



244 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 




WKECK OF THE bPANlSU FLAGSHIP KEINA MERCEDES 
(Morro Castle, Santiago, is seen in the background) 



Victory at made upon Santiago, and the Spaniards saw that it must sur- 
Santiago render. Orders were sent for the Spanish fleet to sail out of ''the 
bottle " and attack 
the American ves- 
sels. This was 
done, but the fleet 
was completely de- 
stroyed. The rest 
of the Spanish 
navy had to stay 
at home to defend 
the coast, and soon 
Spain asked for 
peace. 

She agreed to give freedom to Cuba and to surrender Porto 
Terms of Rico to the United States as well as Guam, a small island in the 
^^^^^ Ladrones. The Philippmes she was to sell to the United States 

for twenty million dollars. The treaty was 
signed in December, 1898, and Spain no longer 
owned a foot of land in the western hemi- 
sphere. What were supposed to be the 
remains of Christopher Columbus were re- 
moved to Spain from the cathedral of Ha- 
vana. While the war was going on, the 
Hawaiian Islands asked to be annexed to 
the United States, and the request was 
granted. 

The war with Spain soon ended, but the 

natives of the Philippines for a time resisted 

our rule. A degree of self-government was early granted the 

Filipinos. In 1900 we had trouble with China. A Chinese society 

called the " Boxers," feeling sure that the empress of China shared 




WILLIAM Mckinley 

(Died September 14, 1901) 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 



245 




The assassi- 
nation of 
McKinley 



their hatred of all foreigners, set out to massacre them. An army- 
was formed of English, Americans, Japanese, and others to rescue 
their missionaries and protect their citizens and business inter- 
ests. Two of the principal cities in China, Pekin and Tientsin, 
were captured, and the Chinese yielded. 

In 1901 McKinley was again elected. Six months later, the 
message was telegraphed over the 
world for the third time within 
forty years, "Our President has 
been assassinated." A great wave 
of sorrow swept over the land. 
The hatred aroused by civil war 
had caused the death of Lincohi; 
the " spoils system " had taken the 
Ufe of Garfield ; McKinley, how- 
ever, fell by the hand of an an- 
archist, one who declares that no 
country should have a government, 
but that every man should do as 
he chooses. The sympathy of the whole world was with the 
United States. Only a few months earlier, America had shared 
the grief of Great Britain at the death of Queen Victoria, and 
now England shared our sorrow. Her flags were put at half- 
mast, badges of mournmg were worn, and memorial services were 
held, not only in the great English cathedrals, but even in the 
little comitry churches. 

A few hours after the death of William McKinley, the Vice- Theodore 
President, Theodore Roosevelt, repeated gravely the presidential bg^comes'^ 
oath: — president 

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of 
President of the United States ; and will, to the best of my ability, 
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United 
States." 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



246 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Increased 
influence 
abroad 



Industrial 
prosperity 



In 1905 President Koosevelt was elected. A few months later 
he succeeded in persuading- Japan and Russia to end the fierce 
warfare that had been raging between them and to agree upon 
terms of peace. Their commissioners met at Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire, and in August a treaty was signed. Cuba had been 
made free, but her government was not strong enough to main- 
tain order, and she now appealed to our country for help. In the 
autumn of 1906 the United States took temporary control of the 
island and appointed a governor. At about the same time our 
Secretary of State paid friendly visits to the South American 
republics. 

Since the Spanish war all sorts of manufactures have pros- 
pered. Prices have been high, work plenty, and wages in most 
kinds of employment have risen. Enormous fortunes have been 
made, and people have come to feel that they are not comfortable 
unless they have more luxuries than ever before. When a coun- 
try is growing and changing as rapidly as the ITnited States, 
new questions are constantly arising, and the greatest wisdom is 
needed to settle them in such a way that all will be treated with 
fairness. One of the most difficult problems of the present day 
is how to divide the profits of any undertaking between capital 
and labor. The capitalist furnishes the money for buildings, ma- 
chinery, and materials, and also the brain for managing, advertis- 
ing, and enlarging the business ; the wage-earner furnishes the 
hands for the actual work. Neither party can succeed without 
the other ; but what share of the gain each ought to receive is no 
easy matter to decide. There is a general belief that a tremendous 
fortune cannot be made unless the rights of the people have been 
violated in some way. One of the most important acts of Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's administration has been the inquiry by the Gov- 
ernment into the methods by which some of the great corporations 
have become so wealthy. One charge was, for instance, that rail- 



Investiga- 
tion of great 



EVENTS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR 247 

roads had been induced to cany the goods of the large producers 
at much lower rates than those of the small producers, and that 
the great companies were thus "killing out" rival concerns and 
preventing a fair competition. The rights of the people have also 
been guarded by an examination of the way in which some of 
the large insurance companies were managing the vast sums of 
money intrusted to their care. The President himself has been 
at the front in these movements. He has also used his personal 
influence as well as that of his position to bring to an end the 
serious industrial strikes that have arisen, and to forward the 
work of the Panama Canal. 

The power and influence of the United States in the affairs of 
the world has become much more apparent during the last few 
years. Fortunately for all concerned, the relations of this country 
to others were guided by John Hay, Secretary of State until his John Hay 
death in 1905, who established what was almost a new principle, 
namely, that dealings between nations should be as frank and 
honorable as those between individuals. 

So it is that with many problems yet to solve, but with a national 
determination to maintain honesty and justice at home and in our 
relations to foreign countries, the United States prepares to enter 
upon the second decade of the twentieth century. 

SUMMARY. 

President Johnson thought that the seceded states should be allowed to 
send representatives to Congress, but Congress demanded the "iron- 
clad oath." Slavery was forbidden, and the right to vote was given to 
the negroes ; but the whites often prevented them from voting. The 
Confederates were soon pardoned and allowed to hold office. 

Between the Civil War and the Centennial of 1876, which marked the 
nation's progress during its first century, the Atlantic cable was laid, 
Alaska was purchased, England paid for the damage done by the 
Alabama, and the Union Pacific Railroad was built. 



248 OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 

Between the Centennial and the Columbian Exposition of 1893, our " green- 
backs " became as good as gold, much was done to further Civil Service 
Reform, the South became more prosperous, the succession to the presi- 
dency was assured, the Chinese were excluded, a tariff for protection as 
well as revenue, and the doctrine of reciprocity won the vote of the 
majority, and much land m the West was thrown open to settlers. 

The inability of Spain to govern Cuba properly brought this countiy into a 
war with Spain which resulted in our acquiring Porto Rico, Guam, and 
the Philippines. During the war the Hawaiian Islands became, at 
their own request, part of the territory of the United States. 

President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist. During President 
Roosevelt's administration, the war between Japan and Russia came to 
an end, the United States took temporary control of Cuba, all kinds of 
manufactures prospered, the methods of gi-eat corporations were investi- 
gated, and the power of the United States in the affairs of the world 
became more apparent. 

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITTEN WORK. 

One of the unsuccessful men describes the opening of Oklahoma. 

Why should the landing of Columbus be celebrated? 

Is it desirable for us to own the Philippines ? 

Why should the Declaration of Independence be celebrated ? 



TEXAS 249 



SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER 



TEXAS 

When La Salle was floating clown the Mississippi in 1682, he 

was dreaming wonderful dreams of the days when France would The dreams 

of La Salle 
control the great river. As has been said before, La Salle's pilot 

made a mistake, and the colony which he expected to establish at 
tlie mouth of the Mississippi was really left not far from the head 
of Matagorda Bay, in what is now the state of Texas. 

This colony failed, and when, a few years later, the Spanish sent 
men to drive out any French settlers who might be on what they 
regarded as Spanish territory, none were to be found at St. Louis, 
as La Salle had named his settlement. The Spanish had no idea 
of giving up the land, but they made few permanent settlements. The Spanish 
They built forts here and there, and the earnest Catholic mission- "^'^sions 
aries hastened to carry the story of the Gospel to the wilderness. 
They did more than preach ; they taught the Indians better ways 
of cultivating the ground than they had known. They taught 
them how to spin and weave, how to make sugar and to work in 
wood and iron and stone. Some of the eastern Indians became 
Christians, and when they were asked to help build churches for 
themselves, they were eager to do everything in their power. Many 
of these lived in pueblos, or little walled villages, and the mission- 
aries required them to work under direction. The men had to 
plant and water the crops and gather them in, to care for the 
cattle, to work as carpenters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths. The 
women and children were obliged to comb cotton and spin. This 



250 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



French or 
Spanish? 



The neutral 
strip 



Austin's 
colony 



fashion of living was so different from their usual mode of life 
that many of them were soon tired of it, and ran away when 
the presents of the missionaries became less generous. Some of 
the tribes could not be pacified even by gifts, and in 1758 they 
attacked one of the missions and killed every one who was in it. 
For some time it was a question whether the French or the 
Spanish would hold Texas. Spain pushed her settlements east 
of the Sabine River and France pushed hers west of the Red 
River until the colonies of the two nations were only seven miles 
apart. Finally, Spain admitted that France had a right to the 

land which she was occupying; 
but not many years later Spain 
helped France in a war against 
England, and to make up for 
the Spanish losses France ceded 
to her New Orleans and also 
all the French possessions 
west of the Mississippi. Later, 
Spain returned this territory 
to France. 

In 1803 the United States 
bought the vast extent of coun- 
try then known as Louisiana, and the American boundary line 
became also the boundary line of Texas. The only trouble was 
that just where the line was situated was undecided. It was 
finally agreed that a strip of land east of the Sabine River should 
be neutral, that is, not ruled by either nation. Sixteen years later, 
the United States bought Florida of Spain, and the neutral strip 
became a part of our present state of Louisiana. 

Before this some few Americans had become settlers in Texas ; 
and now that the eastern boundary had been fixed, colonists could 
obtain from the Spanish government a good title to their land. It 




MAP OF TEXAS 



TEXAS 251 

was known that this was a fertile country, and it occurred to Moses 
Austin of Connecticut that his own condition and that of many 
others might be bettered by immigrating to Texas. There were 
difficulties in the way. The governor of Texas had been ordered 
to keep all Anglo-Americans out of the country, and it was only 
at the personal request of a friend, an officer in the Spanish army, 
that Austin received permission to lead his colony into Texas. 
Moses Austin died, but his son Stephen carried out his father's 
plans, and the colonists came. They seem to have chosen their 
land wherever they pleased, but San Fehpe de Austin, on the Bra- 
zos River, became their chief settlement. 

These American colonists knew that they would have to meet Its dangers 
hardships and that there would be danger of Indian attacks, and gjjjp^ ^^'^' 
they were ready for whatever might come. They had no wild 
dreams of stumbling upon gold mines, and they did not suppose 
they would become millionaires in some mysterious way simply 
because they had settled in a new country. They intended to clear 
the ground and cultivate it, and they reasonably expected that in 
the course of years their land would become valuable. They were 
not now under Spain but under Mexico, for Mexico had revolted 
and freed herself from the country across the ocean. The govern- 
ment of the colony, however, was left in the hands of Austin under 
the governor of Texas. So it was that the Austin settlements 
were really almost a little republic. Other colonists followed until 
many thousand immigrants were settled within the Texas lines. 

Mexico was not pleased. These independent Americans had Feeling in 

Alcxico 
quite different ideas from the Mexicans, and she feared that when toward the 

the colonists had become a little stronger, they would try to get Americans 

l)ossession of Texas. It is no wonder that the Mexicans thought 

as they did, for the United States had suggested several times that 

it would be wiUing to purchase Texas. Laws were passed to keep 

out these determined immigrants, but the immigrants would not be 



252 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Golii 



kept out. Then the Mexican government made their lives a bur- 
den by its tyranny and injustice. Mexico itself was not at peace, 
for there were two parties, one of which stood by the principles 
on which the republic had been founded, while the other wished 
to overthrow them. The settlers sided with the first party ; but 
Santa Anna, the leader of the second, was successful and gained 
control of all the Mexican states up to the Rio Grande. Then 
the colonists were in trouble indeed. They must either submit to 
Santa Anna and give up the rights promised to them at their first 
coming, or else they must declare their independence and be pre- 
pared to fight for it. They issued a " declaration of independence," 
of the most moderate sort. It stated that they were ready to help 
Mexico against those who were trying to overthrow the republi- 
can government, and that they Avould be faithful to her so long as 
she was governed by the constitution adopted when she freed 
herself from Spain ; but that while the Mexican government was 
^^_^^ disorganized, Texas claimed the right to gov- 

^^ ^m^ ern herself. Then they took up arms. There 

^^^^^B| Avere three engagements that will never be 

^m^^^m forgotten by the American people. The first 

1^_ d. was near Goliad on the San Antonio River. 

The leader of the Texan forces was Colonel 
Fannin. He was surrounded by Mexican 
troops, but he had no thought of yielding. 
He threw up breastworks of wagons, bag- 
gage, and earth, and fought fiercely till dark- 
ness fell upon him. The following day the 
battle was renewed; but the Mexicans had 
received so large reinforcements that it was hopeless for the Tex- 
ans to resist further. It was agreed that if they would surren- 
der, they should be treated as prisoners of war and sent to the 
United States. Then they yielded and were taken to Goliad. The 




SANTA ANNA 



TEXAS 



253 



Mexicans looked upon them as filibusters, and apparently saw 
no necessity for keeping any agreement with irregular troops. 
Santa Anna sent an order that they should be shot, and at day- 
break on the morning after they reached Goliad they were marched 
out of the fort and put to death. Twenty-seven escaped, but all 
the others, between three and four hundred, were shot. 

This was not war, it was murder ; but a deed of equal savage- 
ness was done at the Alamo, the old mission at San Antonio which 
had been made into a fort. William Travis was in command, and 
he with his 183 men was besieged 
by several thousand Mexicans un- 
der Santa Anna himself. Travis 
succeeded in sending out a letter, 
addressed " To the People of Texas 
and all Americans in the world," 
begging for aid. "I shall never 
surrender or retreat," he declared. 
The siege went on for ten days, 
and on the eleventh the fort was 
taken by storm. Santa Anna had 
declared that if the fort was not 
surrendered, the garrison should 
be put to the sword, and he kept 
his word. The few who were not 
killed in the assault were shot at once, even though a Mexican 
officer begged for their lives. 

General Samuel Houston became the Texan commander-in- 
chief. He retreated till he had reached the plain of San Jacinto. 
His men were out of patience at the long delay in meeting the 
enemy, and they made a furious charge, shouting, "Remember 
the Alamo ! " Nothing could resist them. Santa Anna was 
taken prisoner, and not more than forty or fifty of his army 




THE ALAMO 



The victory 
of San 
Jacinto 



254 



OUR COUNTRY'S STORY 



Texas joins 
the Union 




The twen- 
tieth century 
Texas 



escaped either capture or death. So it was that independence 
was won. General Houston was made President. 

Texas wished to be admitted to the Union and would have been 
most heartily welcome if it had not been that she was a slave 
state, and those who opposed slavery did not 
wish to have another slave state in the Union. 
On the other hand, if Texas did not belong to 
the Union, there was an excellent opportunity 
for some European country to become " next 
friend " to the new republic. After nearly ten 
years of independence, in 1845 Texas was ad- 
mitted as one of the United States. 

A few years after this event, General Rol)- 
ert E. Lee was one day gazing thoughtfully 
toward the northw'est from a Texan bluff. 
"What do you see?" asked a companion, and 
he replied, "I am listening to the footsteps of 
oncoming millions." Three years after the an- 
nexation there were 100,000 whites in the state; 
at the last census, in 1900, there were nearly two and one half 
millions. Texas has great advantages. Cotton, rice, corn, sugar, 
fruit, vegetables, anything and everything, will grow in some part 
of the favored country. There are enormous cattle ranches, but 
the land in the eastern part of the state is becoming far too valu- 
al)le for any such use. Her people have come to her from all 
])arts of the world. As a general thing they were not rich, but 
they were the strong, sturdy, fearless men and women who make 
such good founders of a state. The spirit shown by the people of 
Galveston when, after the great flood of 1900, they immediately 
set to work to rebuild their ruined city, is characteristic of the 
entire state. This spirit has carried Texas safely through its 
stormy past and will lead it on to a prosperous future. 



i 



SAMUEL HOUSTON 



CI 17 '?*"e 
HISTORY FOR GRAMMAR SCHOOLS 



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A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES 
FOR INTERMEDIATE GRAMMAR GRADES 

Illustrated with more than 200 reproductions of famous paintings, copies of 
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Square i2mo, cloth, 270 pages, 65 cetiis, net. 

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VNALYSIS, SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS 
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FOR UPPER GRAMMAR GRADES 

Containing 235 Illustrations (including Maps in black and white), and 6 full- 
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Crown 8vo, half leather, xxi + 513 pages, $/.oo, net. 

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Author of "Our Couyttry^s Story." 
A HISTORY OF ENGLAND FOR UPPER GRAMMAR GRADES 

Containing 142 Illustrations (including Maps in black and white), and 3 full- 
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SUPPLEMENTARY BOOKS 



Hawthorne's Grandfather's Chair : True Stories from New 
England History (1620-1803). In Riverside Literature Series, 
Nos. 7, 8, 9, witli Portrait of Hawtliorne, Biographical Sketch, 
Notes, and Illustrations. Each part, paper, 15 cents, net; the 
three parts bound in one volume, linen, 50 cents, «<?/. 

Franklin's Autobiography, with a chapter completing his " Life " 
(i 706-1 790). In Riverside Literature Series, Nos. 19, 20. With 
Notes, a Chronological Table, and Illustrations. Each part, paper, 
15 cts., net; the two parts in one vol., linen, 40 cents, net. 

Scudder's George Washington, An Historical Biography 

(1732-1799). With Portrait and Maps. In Riverside Literature 
Series, Double No. 75. Paper, 30 cents, net; linen, 40 cents, net. 

Washington's Rules of Conduct, Diary of Adventure, and 
Farewell Addresses (1753-1796). With Introduction and 
Notes. In Riverside Literature Series, No. 24. Paper, 15 cents, 
net ; linen, 25 cents, net. 

Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride, the Cumberland, and Other 
Poems (1775-1862). With Notes. In Riverside Literature 
Series, No. 63, paper, 15 cents, net. 

Fiske's War of Independence (1775-1789). With Biographical 
Sketch and Maps. In Riverside Literature Series, Double No. 
62. Paper, 30 cents, net ; linen, 40 cents, net. 

Webster's First Bunker Hill Oration, and Oration on Adams 
and Jefferson (1825, 1826). In Riverside Literature Series No. 
56. Paper, 15 cents, net ; linen, 25 cents, net. 

Lincoln's Gettysburg Speech, Inaugural Addresses, and Other 
Papers, with Lowell's Essay on Lincoln (1861-1865). ^^ 
Riverside Literature Series No. 32. Paper, 15 cents, net. 

Dodge's A Bird's-Eye View of our Civil War (1861-1865). 
With Maps and Illustrations. Revised Students' Edition. Crown 
8vo, 348 pages, $1.00, net. 



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